Misguided Ghost
by Ready Or Notxx
Summary: Adam's alive. He's alive because of a choice, a simple decision. The decision is to be John's apprentice in order to live. AmandaXAdamXLawrence. COMPLETED!
1. Walking in Circles

Misguided Ghost

By No More Sorrowxx

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Hello, darlings! Welcome to my first official Saw chapter fic. This fic will be my priority for a while, so those of you who like my other stories...Tough luck. They're on hiatus for a bit. But for those of you who haven't read any of my fics, nice to meet you! (: I'm a Chain-Shipper, so I likeys Adam and Lawrence. XD

Please R&R and I hope you love the prologue.

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_1: Walking In Circles_

It's cold. So cold that Adam has to curl up in a ball to keep warm. So cold that he can't feel his hands or his feet or his own soul. But it's not the air or the tile floor that or cold. Adam's heart is cold.

He can't remember how long it's been since Lawrence left. Lawrence had left him with a face as pale as snow, trembling anxiously. He said he'd be back for Adam. But he hasn't come back yet.

Adam sits up, careful of his wounded shoulder. There's still pain, but not physical. He'd always thought that getting shot could be the most painful thing ever, but he actually never felt it. He was so scared, so scared for Lawrence and Allison and Diana. Scared that he wasn't going to make it out alive.

Getting shot was the most painful thing ever?

No.

Being alone was the most painful thing ever. The only thing you had to talk to were misguided ghosts. They all walked effortlessly through the bathroom door and through the wall, walking in circles, going around and around...over and over again...They won't talk to Adam. They just hopelessly stare at him. For a moment, he thinks he recognizes each of them, but after he takes a good, long look at each of them, every piece of recognition he had for the ghosts vanishes. They won't talk to Adam. They just whisper things, but no matter how hard he strains to hear them, he just can't understand the whispers. He _wants _to understand. He _wants _the ghosts to respond. But they won't.

He wants the ghosts to hear him. Not just because he's lonely, but...they're like him. Misguided. They beg for attention--_beg _for it. But maybe they can't hear Adam speaking to them. Maybe Adam's voice sounds like whispers to them too. Maybe they can't find their way home. Maybe they're just plain, simple, misguided ghosts.

The thought buzzes in his mind over and over again, and Adam suddenly finds himself trembling in the darkness. He wants someone here. But no one can find him. He's alone. He's all alone.

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"John, I'm not so sure if this is a good idea."

"We'll see. The game hasn't even begun yet, Mark."

Adam's lost in darkness. His eyes are closed, and he's standing in the dark. He's so exhausted. Exhausted from just being exhausted. Exhausted from the hunger that stabbed at his stomach. He doesn't want to open his eyes, doesn't want to see what's in front of him. He wants to be lost in sleep and never wake up. Never wake up to the other darkness--the darkness of the bathroom.

"Amanda, why don't you go check on Lawrence?"

"Sure. Maybe I'll find a revolver while I'm at it."

Voices. There are voices in the darkness. Voices that are in the darkness somewhere. Voices that are unfamiliar to Adam. He hears them so clearly, but he can't locate where the voices are coming from.

"Yes, Amanda. Do us all a favor and find a revolver."

"Be quiet, detective. Maybe it should be used on you."

Where were they coming from? Adam lifts his eyes open. A bright, white light blinds them and they shut again quickly. Adam grits his teeth. The painful light will hurt him again if he opens his eyes. But he has no choice.

Adam opens them again, blinking rapidly and trying to focus his vision. It takes a few moments of fierce blinking, but he is finally able to look around. He is on the floor of the large industrial bathroom yet again, but this time he is waking up to the light being turned on. There are three people standing in the front of the room, staring at him and watching his every move. One is an old, frail man, bald with a little strip of blonde facial hair on his chin. The next is a young woman with short, choppy dark brown hair with dark brown eyes. Her forehead is wrinkled with disdain. The last is a man with brown hair and the same disdainful look on his face.

These people are people Adam has never met in his life. He stands up with a start, the chain rattling in his wake. However, being in the bathroom for so long and famished, he becomes dizzy and nearly falls over. To catch himself, he leans on the muck-covered wall, trembling in terror.

"Hello, Adam," says the old man. The old man now looks familiar...

Adam's eyes widen with realization. Before the lights had turned off all that time ago, the old man who had been lying in the pool of blood for eight hours had gone to the door and closed it, leaving him screaming in horror. It was the same man now standing across the room from Adam. "Wh-wh-what are you doing here?" stutters Adam, one hand still on the wall.

"I'm offering you a solution to escaping this room," the old man replies, his blue eyes totally calm and intimidating. The other two people are just standing there, motionless statues behind who seems to be their leader.

"You're the man who put me in this room, aren't you!" snaps Adam, and it's not a question. He knows it's the truth. It had to be. "How could you do this to me and Lawrence!" The name pokes Adam like an obnoxious little kid. "Lawrence...where's Lawrence?" He tries to move forward, but is once again restricted by the chain.

"He's in a safe place. You're feeling helpless, aren't you?"

"Answer my question!" Adam is getting more irritated than scared. His mind is buzzing with questions and he's afraid he won't get his answers.

"Adam, would you like to see Lawrence again? Would you like to make it out of here alive?"

Adam's eyes widen. Lawrence is alive. He has to be. Just like Adam has to be getting out alive. _He has to be._

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Short prologue, I know, but thanks for reading! Can't wait for your reviews!

-- No More Sorrowxx


	2. A Promise That Needs To Be Kept

Misguided Ghost

By No More Sorrowxx

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Aww, thank you for your review(s if I get more)!! I just had to write more. Most of this chapter is flashback-age, but enjoy anyways!

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2: A Promise That Needs to Be Kept

_Adam can't stop sobbing. He's sobbing so hard that he thinks his lungs are going to explode. They're going to explode and end all of his suffering. Lawrence is directly in front of him, snow white and trembling. He's in pain, too much pain. They both want it to just end. But it won't. It's too far from over to just end._

_"I h-h-have to go and g-get help..." says Lawrence, his voice shaking with every word. Adam's heart and shoulder both ache while he looks down. He can't help but nod, nod because he wants someone to find him. He wants help. "I-if I don't g-g-get help.....I'm g-going to bl-bl-bleed to death..."_

_No. He can't leave now. If he leaves, Adam will be alone. This room will be a prison of blood and silence. He would be all by himself, and he knows he won't be able to handle that. He pulls on the sleeves of Lawrence's white shirt. "No...Don't leave me," Adam begs, his voice whimpering like a lost kid. But Lawrence begins to crawl away, away from him. He's going to leave Adam all alone. This bothers Adam because he's always been alone, throughout his whole life. His parents kicked him out. People always rejected him and slammed doors in his face. Adam's desperate for someone to be with him. He reaches out and grabs Lawrence's wrist, but Lawrence moves away from him. He's leaving. He's going away._

_"I'll br-bring someone back--I pr-pr-promise," Lawrence assures Adam, and then continues to the wide-open door. The door of salvation. That salvation is right in front of them both, and Lawrence can get to it. But Adam can't. No matter how much he reaches out and tries to grab that salvation, it slips out of his grasp. He won't ever have it. Adam cries out, desperate to make Lawrence stay. But he won't. He just won't._

_"Lawrence!" cries Adam. "Lawrence!"_

_Now at the end of the room, Lawrence wraps both arms around the muck-covered pipe and looks back at Adam, his blue eyes big. Adam takes another big sob before murmuring, "We're going to be okay?"_

_"I wouldn't lie to you," Lawrence answers, seeming to smile a bit, but for just a second. But that with that single second sends a tiny sliver of hope to Adam. He believes, for once in all the time that he has been in this bathroom, that he and Lawrence will both make it. Lawrence just promised. It's a promise that has to be kept. It just has to be._

All of this runs through Adam's head again, over and over again, as Lawrence's name is mentioned. It feels like it's been years since then, but he knows that it's maybe only been a few hours. Lawrence is very important to Adam. He's the only person who had really taken the time to listen to him, and the only person who had felt confident enough to tell him personal things. When you spend eight hours alone with someone in a small space, you really get to know them.

Adam looks down, blinking again at the pain of being in the dark for so long. His hands are in fists, clenched at the thought of seeing someone precious to him again. There had never really been many precious people to Adam. If they had been precious to him, they'd either pushed him away or shut him out, like his parents. His parents had kicked him out as soon as he'd turned eighteen. Adam had left them behind, laughing and yelling, "Ha! I don't need you! I can make it alone! I'm alone all the time anyways!" And now here he was, twenty-five, and still all alone. He has made it, but not far. All he has is a crappy apartment and some stupid job as a photographer, taking pictures of people he doesn't even know. He needs someone to rely on now. And he had relied on Lawrence--the man precious to him; the man who had kept his promise.

"Lawrence...is alive?" asks Adam, his voice shaking in awe. He's so relieved. Lawrence had looked pretty small before he had left, very fragile. He'd gone berserk with the thought of the death of his family. Could someone that upset really be okay anymore?

"Yes," the old man answers. Adam's surprised to hear another voice after going through all of his thoughts. He looks up with start, watching the three un-moving figures across the room. "Would you like to get out of here, today, Adam? Would you like to be whole again?" Whole? Adam hadn't been whole since his childhood! He was broken into thousands of pieces since then. Whole sounded so far away now. He'd been so broken within the past few hours that being whole seemed impossible.

Adam wants freedom more than anything. He'd never really seen life until now. He wants nothing more than to breathe the fresh air and just lay down and stair at the sky. He wants _life. _He wants to _live. _"I...would like that very much," he replies, looking down again.

"Amanda, do you still have the key?" the old man asks the young woman.

"I wouldn't lose it," Amanda mutters, reaching in her pants pocket and bringing out a shiny, silver key. Adam sighs with relief. Finally, a key that will work! Amanda walks to the other side of the room, avoiding the large pool of dark red blood and Zep's dead body. She bends down and unlocks the shackle around Adam's ankle, opening it. She pulls it off of his foot. Adam smiles and steps away, overly-joyful to be out of his restraint.

"Do you know why you were tested?" the old man asks, walking over to Adam and Amanda. He doesn't let Adam answer. "You may not understand my work, but you will. You'll learn my methods, and then I'll give you a choice. Live or die, Adam. The choice is yours."

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XD Too short, I know. But I tried. Yay chain-shipping. XD Please R&R!

-- No More Sorrowxx


	3. Adam's Second Test

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_Misguided Ghost  
No More Sorrowxx  
Chapter 3: Adam's Second Test_

****

_**Quinto Addict  
**_**Aww, thanks for reading again! Yes, we all waited for Adam to finally get that shackle off of his foot. XD**

_Effiny  
_Of course I'll keep going. :D This story is my main one for now, anyways.

Guys, I just saw Dying Breed (another Leigh Whannell movie) so I had to base a little bit of the last scene from that movie on a part of this chapter. XD If you haven't seen Dying Breed yet, it's really nasty, scary horror movie. AND I LOVED IT. The ending made me start bawling and crying though. And even though I'm basing a part of this chapter off of that, I'm changing it up a bit. Adam doesn't die. XD

--

Adam, John, Amanda, and Hoffman walk down the dark hallway out of the bathroom. Adam is at the back of the group, reluctant to press any further. The place on his ankle where the shackle was is throbbing. The chain had hurt with every jerk, every move Adam had made. It is pink and swollen and has a gruesome appearance. It hurts every time Adam takes a step.

"You must be starving," says John, looking over his shoulder at Adam. "I want you to go to your apartment and get some rest. We'll talk later.

Adam narrows his eyes. "So that's it?" he responds. "I can just leave right now? And you're not going to do anything to me?" John has to be the strangest serial killer ever.

"There is, in fact, a catch," the old man adds, stopping and turning around to face the younger man. "I'm leaving my apprentice, Amanda, with you. Just to make sure you don't go anywhere until tomorrow."

"So I'm like a prisoner now."

"You can call it whatever you want, but I'm still watching you, Adam Faulkner," Amanda says, smirking a bit. "So I suggest you come easy or the rest of this night will be hell for you."

Adam smirks right back. "That sounds more like a promise than a threat. Now John...What did you mean by methods?"

"I'll explain that to you in the morning as well," John replies. "Now Amanda, drive him to his apartment and make sure he gets something to eat."

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Adam walks up the stairs to his apartment, with Amanda very close behind. His gunshot wound had been treated by Hoffman and John and now is now bandaged up. It's funny how it doesn't hurt much anymore. All physical wounds Adam has have all stopped hurting since he had left the bathroom. The only thing bothering him now is his aching head. It throbs and pulses with every step. He wants food right now more than anything. "Do you even HAVE anything to eat in this dump?" mutters Amanda as they walk to Adam's apartment door. She has Adam's keys, so she pulls them out of her pocket and unlocks the door for him. She pushes it open.

As they walk inside, Adam says, "Who knows? I haven't gone to the store in a few days and since I live alone, I really only get enough for myself." Adam takes the keys from Amanda and throws them on a desk near the refrigerator. He opens the fridge and looks around. There's some fried rice he'd never bothered to finish... He looks up at Amanda. "You hungry?" But Amanda doesn't answer immediately. Adam's stomach rumbles and growls loudly, and they're both silent for a few moments.

"Not really," Amanda chuckles, smiling and shaking her head. "I ate before we got you out of there."

"Okay then, suit yourself..." Adam takes the fried rice out of the fridge and puts it in the microwave after opening the container. He sets the timer for one minute and then leans against the counter, his arms behind him and his hands holding him up. Adam sighs and closes his eyes. "I never thought I'd be so glad to be back in my shithole apartment...I thought I hated this place, but I'm so glad that I'm back here..."

Amanda picks up a pack of cigarettes off of the counter. "Don't you need to smoke or something now?" The question's a challenge.

Adam stairs at the pack and then glances at the lighter, which is also on the counter. He wants one. Bad. But...now...He feels no reason to take one in his fingers and light it, to smoke the whole pack and then fall asleep on the couch. So he just says, "Put the damn pack down on the counter. I'll think about it." He isn't ready to give up smoking completely yet, he finds. Maybe he'll have a smoke later.

As the microwave beeps, Adam opens it and takes the steaming rice out. With the rice still in his hand, he opens a drawer and grabs a spoon out of it. He doesn't bother to even close the drawer as he makes his way to the couch. He plops down on the stained, old couch and begins to eat ravenously. Before he knows it, all of the fried rice is gone. There's not one grain of it left in the container now. Too tired to get up and throw the container away, Adam sits it on the coffee table, which is stained by hundreds of coffee rings. It use to be a beautiful glass coffee table. Now it looked like something you might find a hobo with.

Adam sits back, rested his arms behind his head. He looks at Amanda and murmurs, "Make yourself comfortable, Amanda...I'm going to be here for a while..." And then he closes his eyes. He doesn't feel like moving to his bed. No spot could be more comfortable right now. His stomach is somewhat satisfied and now all he wants to do is sleep. When you're in constant fear like he was in the bathroom, you could sleep, but the fear would just eat away at your insides even wall you were asleep. But now Adam is home, and home is where he belongs. Adam's mind slips away to sleep.

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Blood.

There's a tiny bit of blood coming from Adam's nose. He only notices it because it's warm. Adam's eyes open. He's in his bedroom, sitting in a chair. The room is dark except for the yellow glow of a single candle on his nightstand. Adam tries to get up. But he can't. His feet are chained to the legs of the chair by two hand-cuffs, along with his wrists which are chained together behind the chair by one handcuff. Adam wiggles around and pulls as hard as he can, but he can't move the chair at all. He looks at the bottoms of the curved chair legs again, which are nailed to the floor.

What the hell's going on here?

Adam's freaking out. He begans to gasp in shock. His heart begins to speed up and race as he desperately tries to free himself by kicking his feet, but it's no good at all. His heart pounds against his chest. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Adam knows something bad is going to happen.

He sighs with relief as Amanda opens the door and walks into the room. He wants to ask her what's happening, but he's too stunned. He's breathing too heavily to speak. Amanda's going to save him. She has to. And then she can tell him why this is happening.

That thought totally vanishes as Amanda smirks at Adam. Adam's eyes go even wider as he stares at her and notices what she holds in her left hand. It's a sharp, shining knife. "Hello, Adam," she whispers softly. She slowly across the room to him, every step making Adam tremble in fear. "As you well know, I am John's second apprentice. I faced my own test in order to rehabilitate myself and value my life. But there's something I see in you, Adam. Something that John may not see. He's letting you go so you can become his third apprentice because you apparently also value life." She stands in front of him for a few moments before holding the knife up.

"Let me tell you something, Adam Faulkner," Amanda continues. "I didn't work my ass off being John's apprentice to have some second-rate asshole come in and goof off. There's a question I want you to answer for me..." Amanda grabs Adam's shirt and leans closer to him. Adam's trembling is wracking and hurting his own body now. He's never been so damn scared. Amanda Young is crazy. She's crazy, and... Amanda holds the knife to Adam's neck. "Do you value your life now? Do you feel that you have been set free from past actions?" Amanda gets close enough to where she's on Adam's lap now. Her other hand strokes Adam's cheek. This sort of thing is usually used to calm someone. However, it only made Adam more frightened.

He doesn't answer. Something in his brain won't work right now. He's dealing with a juvenile. If he says one wrong thing, she'll slit his throat. And maybe even if he says what she wants to hear, she'll slit his throat anyways. "Answer me," Amanda growls, getting closer to Adam's face. "Do you value life?" Adam still can't answer. He's hyperventilating now, and trying to keep the tears in his eyes from spilling over.

Seeing that he won't answer, Amanda moves the knife to his shirt. She cuts the white shirt in two, exposing Adam's chest and his tattooed shoulders. "There are so many ways to die, Adam," she murmurs. "You only have to say one wrong thing and I'll give you the most painful death imaginable...There are lots of vital points in your chest, including your heart. Would you like me to plunge this knife into your heart right now? Or do you value your life enough to speak against your fear and stop me? We're at a crossroads. Make your choice." Amanda puts the knife against him, ready to cut at any moment.

Adam can't stop his tears. Only a little bit of them spill over and run down his cheeks. He swallows and finally speaks. "D-d-don't kill me, please..." is all he can say at first.

"That's not what I want to hear," Amanda remarks, still smiling. "Answer the question." She begins to cut.

Seeing the blood, Adam cries out, "I VALUE LIFE, AMANDA! NOW LET ME GO!" His tone isn't angry. It's more of a pleading tone.

"Do you? Do you really?"

Adam's eyes widen as far as they can go and he screams, "I REALLY DO! DON'T KILL ME! I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

Amanda pauses. Her eyes look into Adam's wide ones. "Okay then," she says simply, and then gets off of his lap. Adam starts to sob. He hangs his head while Amanda gets the keys for the handcuffs. She unlocks all of them, one by one, and then throws them on the floor. But though Adam's free, he doesn't move from the chair. "I value life..." he whispers.

"I guess I just have to believe you, Adam," says Amanda. She shrugs and walks to the door, but before she walks out, she adds, "Well done for passing your second test. Get some more sleep. You need it."

"Fuck you," Adam replies, louder than he wants it to come out. He still doesn't move even as the girl leaves the room.

What do these people want from him?

**--**

**-plays flute- What, where the hell did I get a flute? I enjoyed writing this chapter. XD Adam sort of freaks out a lot and Amanda goes a little commando. XD**

**Please R&R!**

**-- No More Sorrowxx**


	4. Final Decision

**_Misguided Ghost  
No More Sorrowxx  
Chapter 4: Final Decision_**

_**IAmMadlyInLoveWithJohnnyDepp**_

I know, Amanda's a meanie. The third movie really upset me because it had three of my favorite people die in it: Adam (even though techinically he died before the story in the third movie happened, but it shows him dying in it DX), Amanda (sorry, I still like her a bit), and John. TSK TSK! The third movie kinda of made me go like, "Oh NUUUUUU..."

_**SawManiac211  
**_Thank you. And read the chapter. You'll find out. ;)

_**Jigsawl8n8  
**_You seem very familiar...You have a YouTube account with the same name, no? XD Yes, Amanda was my favorite character for a while, but when she killed Adam...um...Something inside me just went all crazy for Adam instead. I was heartbroken. XD By the way, what do you mean by msn? XD

_**QuintoAddict**_

YES! A CONSISTANT READER! XD Yes, Amanda DOES need a cookie... -looks at her, starts baking cookies- And why would I kill you for your opinion? XD I know a few people who didn't like it as well...And although I don't really see why, it's you're opinion. :)

_**AspenCayde  
**_I LOVE him. XD A LOT.

Okay, you guys. Here comes Dr. Gordon. XD Alas, this is still kind of an Amanda/Adam/Lawrence chapter. Sorry. My friend's been plotting way too many ideas inside of my head since I let her start reading it...XD XD So there's kind of a building tension going on that'll grow into something else later on. I'm not going to say what it is, because if you're me, you don't like to spoil a surprise...However, Stella, I DO believe that YOU'LL enjoy it. XD Jigsawl8n8, you might not. XD

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There's a sound.

It sounds like voices. Adam's in the darkness again, but this time, it's not just a calm, black, never-ending space. It's a space that's filled with Adam's own fear. There's a dark pit of fear yawning in his stomach. He'd trusted Amanda. He hadn't expected her to act on her own. But what a fool he'd been to not see this coming...

Adam's mind picks out the voices, making them all out and understanding them clearly through his sleeping mind. He opens his eyes and looks at his surroundings. He's in his room, which isn't really much different from the darkness right now. The candle from earlier has been blown out. The door is cracked open a tiny bit so that Adam can see just a tiny sliver of light now.

Last time he had been awake, he had woken up restricted to a chair. Now he lay on his bed. It had never felt this comfortable, this inviting...Adam wants to just bury his face in the pillows and forget what happened earlier. Forget that he had a cut on his chest now. Forget that he'd spent hours and hours and hours in a grimy, industrial bathroom. Forget it all and just go back to sleep.

But he can't. The pit of fear is still swarming inside of his stomach, preventing him from going back to sleep peacefully. Adam glances at the clock. It's almost six A.M. How long had he been sleeping? It feels like it had only been a few minutes. Adam closes his eyes again and focuses on the voices once more. He can hear them all arguing, one in a calmer voice than the others. Adam can tell who it is.

Amanda, Hoffman, and John. Who else?

Suddenly, the door opens. The hinges squeak loudly. Adam doesn't open his eyes to see who's there. He just lays on his side with his face still buried in his pillow, refusing to move and give the visitor any sign of him being awake. The sound of slow footsteps makes Adam's heart pound his ears for no reason.

The footsteps stop. Something rubs Adam's shoulder. "Wake up," a soft voice says.

Oh, no.

It's Amanda in the room with him. Adam's eyes open wide. In immediate response, he struggles to get away from her, but ends up falling off the bed and landing on the floor with a loud thud.

Amanda smiles big, the yellow light from the hallway hitting half of her face. She chuckles a tiny bit. "I didn't mean to scare you," she says. "You okay?"

Adam sits up and narrows his eyes up at her. "As a matter of fact, I'm _great,"_ he mutters back with a bit of venom in his voice. "Thanks for asking!" Despite his angry tone, he wants nothing more than to just hide from the crazy woman.

"Good. Because John would like a word with you."

"Whatever, maniac..." Adam stands up and quickly aims to walk past Amanda. But Amanda grabs Adam's arm as soon as he's near her. Adam looks at her, his eyes widening again.

Amanda's not smiling anymore. She just looks at Adam for a long moment and whispers, "I'm sorry." Then, she lets go. Adam doesn't move for a few seconds, gazing at the woman. Amanda won't look at him now. She just looks down. Adam can't see her expression, only the back of her head because the light his hitting it.

After the pause, Adam walks down the hallway and to his living room. John is sitting on the couch, giving him one of those "I've been expecting you" looks that people seem to see in a lot of movies nowadays. "Hello, Adam," he greets the younger man. "Amanda already explained to me what happened. You don't have to be afraid of her. Like me, she wants to help you."

"Help me?" Adam scoffs. ""By the way, you still haven't explained those methods of yours, John."

"Tell me, Adam," John replies. "Do things around you feel different? Amanda told me that you didn't even touch your cigarettes last night."

Adam narrows his eyes. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with--"

"It's a rehabilitation method that I have going on here. You see people every day who do drugs or complain about their lives. People every day say they want to die or they hate living. But you can never understand the value of life when you haven't been face to face with death. Once you're exposed to this method, it really all just falls into place. You look at things differently. Everything changes. I give people a chance to fight for their lives. I give them the choice to choose whether they live or die."

"That's right--he helped me." Adam looks over his shoulder at Amanda, who's standing a few feet behind him with her arms crossed. "It worked on you just like it worked on me and Mark." Adam glances at Hoffman. The man is standing in the kitchen, brewing some coffee. Adam wishes he could bite Hoffman's head off for not asking him before making the coffee, but decides against it. Adam looks back at Amanda. Quiet Amanda who just stares back at him sheepishly.

"Amanda mentioned something to me last night," Adam says, looking back at John. "She said something about you wanting me to become your apprentice."

"That's true," John answers, nodding. "You said in the bathroom that you want to live. Now you'll show me how much you want to live by working alongside me. You'll explore the method of rehabilitation."

"And what if I don't?"

"Then I'll personally see to it that you get locked away in the bathroom again."

There's a cold silence between Adam and John now. Adam bites his lip and narrows his eyes. He already knows how forceful these people can be. They'd gotten him easily once before. Who's to say that they won't get him again? "What exactly will I have to do?" he asks quietly.

"You'll help us set up traps, set up games...things like that. Are you willing to accept this, Adam?"

Adam looks at all three of the Jigsaw killers for a long moment. How could he not accept this? He did in fact value his life. Besides, technically, if they die, it's not murder. It's their own choice of whether they live or die. Adam nods. "Okay, John, I'll become your apprentice."

--

Adam hates this place.

The white walls of this hospital seem to be closing on him. He's always hated hospitals, hated the way they look. Hated the blood and the needles. Hated everything about them. So it is a big step for him to walk into a place he fears and come to see Lawrence.

He approaches the hospital room. Allison and Diana might be inside. He hopes they're not. He doesn't want to have to deal with the awkward silence. They probably knew what he had been doing now, how he'd been taking pictures of Lawrence for days. Zep had also told them not to believe his lies. So they at least knew a little bit about him...

Adam grips the doorknob. He's shaking, scared of what he might find when he opens that door. Taking a deep breath, he finally opens it.

Lawrence is asleep. His head is resting on a pillow and he's snoring gently. His formerly amputated foot has been stitched back on and is propped up on a pillow. Adam stares at him for a few moments and then goes to sit down. He remembers everything in the bathroom. All the things he said to Lawrence that he wishes he could take back now.

Suddenly, Lawrence opens his eyes and looks at Adam. His eyes glimmer with recognition. "Adam..." he whispers.

Awkwardly, Adam says back with a small wave, "Yo."

"You're here...You're really here..."

The side of Adam's mouth curves up. "Why wouldn't I be here?"

"You're alive! They found you!" Lawrence is over-joyed. He's smiling so big that it hurts.

"I'm glad you kept your promise," Adam jokes, remembering it. "You were right. Everything's okay..." For the most part...He doesn't know how to tell Lawrence, the man he can confide in, that he's a Jigsaw apprentice now. Instead, he asks, "Um...how's your foot?"

"The doctors told me that they're doing everything they can to make it work right again," Lawrence replies quietly. "But they also say I'll never regain perfect mobility of it...Although, with some help from physical therapy, I should be able to still get around."

Adam hangs his head. "I prodded you too far, didn't I?"

Lawrence gives Adam a confused stare. "What do you mean?"

"If I hadn't kept acting like such an ass, we would've gotten out of there a lot faster. We could've worked like a team. But it's my fault and..."

Lawrence smiles again. "It's _not _your fault. Jigsaw wanted me to go crazy. He wanted me to saw off my foot and bleed. He wanted me to shoot you. None of that is your fault."

_I'm the one who got myself in there, _Adam thinks. He decides to change the subject again. "Look at us. We made it. We actually made it out of one of that serial killer's tests, didn't we?"

"I guess we did...."

Suddenly, Adam feels compelled. He looks up at Lawrence again. "Speaking of Jigsaw, I have something I need to tell you..."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Yay Lawrence! XD

Please R&R!

-No More Sorrowxx


	5. Because I've Played Before

**_Misguided Ghost  
No More Sorrowxx  
Chapter 5: Because I've Played Before_**

**_Jigsawln8n  
_**Thank you so much! XD Oh, I'm BrandNewEyes777 on YouTube. XD That's an interesting theory you have there...O.O Maybe it's true.......

**_AspenCayde  
_**Why thank you very much! XD

Okay, you guys, there is like a 3-month time gap in this chapter. Now it's time for the Nerve Gas House Games to begin...Heh heh heh...Oh, I know she pulls the tape recorder out of the bricks of something, but I'm just going to say that it was a fireplace since I never did figure out what it was.

Disclaimer: I do not own Saw. I do not own Adam or any of the characters. I wish I did. I also wish I owned a Reeses ice-cream...

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Adam sits on an old, decrepit couch in a small room. The light from the windows are blocked by wooden boards. It's time for a new game to begin.

John, Amanda and Hoffman are outside the room, talking. The door suddenly opens, and Hoffman drags a young woman inside the room. The woman is exceptionally beautiful and has long, dark brown hair. This is Addison Corday, one of the test subjects, who is fast asleep.

Amanda then drags in another woman, this one blonde and smaller. This test subject is Laura Hunter. Amanda sets the comatose Laura down and looks at Adam. Her dark, spiky hair's gotten a bit longer. "You gonna help?" she asks.

Adam nods. "Yeah, sorry." He gets up and walks out of the room to where the other test subjects lay. All the subjects are former convicts, falsely convicted because of Detective Eric Matthews. Matthews plants false evidence in order to contain convictions, but now with the help of John, that would be stopped. John is going to test Matthews later after all of these games are over...Adam goes to a scrawny teenager with curly brown hair. This teenager is the son of Matthews, Daniel. Daniel is sort of Matthews's bait to come into this house alter on...Adam grabs Daniel by his wrists and drags him back into the small room.

Hoffman stares at Adam as he works, an interesting gleam appearing in his eyes. Adam looks back at him, narrowing his eyes. "Why the hell are you staring at me, Mark?" Adam mutters.

"I wasn't staring at you," the other man protests.

"Yes, you were. Right at me. You have been the whole time I've been dragging these morons in this room. Why don't you actually help out for a change, hm?"

Hoffman snorts with contempt. "I _am_ helping."

"Mark!" John calls. Mark looks away from Adam and at John, who's standing in the doorway with a gun in his hand. Adam's eyes widen. What's John going to do? Adam sets Daniel down and backs away. Ever since he'd been shot in the shoulder by Lawrence, the sight of a gun always made his heart race. John gives Adam an amused grin. "What? I'm not going to shoot you."

"Y-yeah, I know," Adam lies, still watching John's every move.

"Mark, could you help me with something?" John asks. Hoffman nods and walks over to the door. John walks behind it next, clicking something into place. Adam watches for a few seconds before going to help the struggling Amanda drag Xavier Chavez into the room.

Amanda pulls and pulls but is only able to move the big man a tiny bit with each pull. Adam smiles, smiles because he's never actually seen Amanda struggle to get one of the text subjects into the designated area. Amanda looks over her shoulder at him, narrowing her eyes. "What? What are you smiling about?"

Adam goes over and grabs Xavier's other wrist. "You look like you need some help," he laughs, yanking Xavier as hard as he can. But because Adam's a little scrawny and not very muscular, he also can't move Xavier very far, even with Amanda dragging him as well. "This man's a laundry sack full of meat, I swear..."

John clicks the gun into place on a small device on the outside of the door. "Why do you need Amanda and Adam in the game?" Hoffman asks him from the other side of the door. "I mean, you say you just let everything play out. You don't interfere."

"They won't interfere," John says, loading the gun with a bullet carefully. "They'll just...simply offer choices."

"A little to your left..." Hoffman adds, staring through the peephole in the door. He wants to make sure that John loads the gun right.

Amanda and Adam finally successfully get Xavier into the room, and eventually get everyone else inside as well, breaking a sweat. John comes back inside the room after they're all done and hands Adam a tape recorder. "What do I do with this?" Adam asks quietly.

John points at the fireplace across the room. "There are some loose bricks in that fireplace. You can put it in there." Nodding, Adam walks to the fireplace, bends down, and feels for loose bricks, patting them gently. While he's doing so, he thinks about what he said to Lawrence three months ago about becoming John's apprentice. He thinks about the look on Lawrence's face when he was told.

_"I don't think you should do this."_

_"I have to, Lawrence. I want to live. Besides, John is right."_

_"So you're going to help kill people."_

_"It's not killing them if they're given the choice to live or die."_

_"He's brain-washed you!"_

_"No. Whatever you think, now I see life clearer. I see that I didn't appreciate my blessings. At least I had a home. I didn't need to be complaining about a shithole life in a shithole apartment. I have things pretty well, actually. At least I have a home. At least I'm making some money. Things could be worse."_

_"What are you talking about, Adam? He could've left you in there to die!"_

_"He didn't. He helped me."_

_"What happens if you make a mistake?"_

_"I won't."_

_"I implore you to rethink that, Adam."_

_"I've already made up my mind...You wouldn't turn me in, would you?"_

_"...No, I won't turn you in. I'll let you do this. But I implore you to think about the consequences."_

Adam finds the loose bricks and pulls them out, dropping them on the floor. "Oh, don't forget this!" Amanda exclaims. She hands Adam a small note and a key.

_Do not attempt to use this key on the door to this room._

Adam nods and puts the tape recorder, the note, and the key inside of the fireplace. He puts the bricks back the way they were and then stands up. John looks around the whole room for a moment. The room that they had all set up together. Next, he looks up at his three apprentices and states, "It's time to start our game."

--

Every one of the test subjects are now awake.

Amanda is on the floor, pretending to be asleep. Adam is sitting on the decrepit couch, watching the subjects wander around the room. Addison is attempting to pull the door open, but it's locked and set on a five-minute timer so that it won't unlock until time is up. "I don't even know how I got here," Adam mutters, trying to use his acting skills to the best of his abbility.

Addison screeches suddenly, "SOMEBODY OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!!" Laura looks at her, trying not to cry and crossing her arms tightly to make herself feel more secure.

"You don't just wake up in a room and have no idea where you are!" Gus, another subject, hisses.

"I guess you've never been drunk before," Xavier growls back.

"I spent three years in a college. This is different!" Everyone is looking at Gus now. Gus leans on a huge black safe in the middle of the room. "Did anybody see that movie on last week? A guy on it woke up in a room with no doors and no lights, and he spent _nine years _in that room."

"Nine years?" echoes Xavier harshly. "That's nothing!"

"Is this house arrest?" Addison offers.

"Nah, this isn't jail," Jonas, yet another subject, corrects her. He's on the floor, prodding Amanda and trying to wake her up.

"Yeah, you done a lot of time?" Addison scoffs back, shaking her head.

"Yeah, too much," Jonas answers reluctantly, scratching the back of his head.

"What about you?" Addison asks Adam, looking at him with dark brown eyes. Addison was...a prostitute, which was the reason John had chose her for this game. She was just always using her looks to get what she wants.

"Please, do you really think that scrawny marshmallow would ever do anything to go to jail?" Xavier mutters. Adam glares at him and doesn't even bother answering. He just sits there, silent, and waits for the timer to count down to zero.

Addison goes up to the window and yells, "HELP! HELP US!" Obi, the last of the subjects, is slinking around with his jacket hood on his head. He, like Adam, is silent.

"No one can hear you..." murmurs Daniel, who's cowering in the corner in fear.

"Someone's listening," Laura points out, pointing at a video camera on a wall. The camera is recording the whole thing.

"No, those types of cameras don't have sound," Daniel corrects her, looking down.

Addison leans against the door once more. "Ticking," she whispers. "I hear ticking." But suddenly, without warning, Amanda starts gasping loudly on the floor. Everyone stares at her as she tries to get up, sways, leans against the safe, and pukes something up.

Adam's eyes are wide. _You would never even be able to tell that Amanda's a great actress, _he thinks. Jonas grabs Amanda by the shoulders and holds her against the wall, despite her protests. "Calm down!" Jonas tells her. "What's your name?"

"Amanda..." she whispers. "Where am I...?"

"I don't know! We all woke up here just like you did!"

Amanda's eyes widen and her mouth gapes open. And then, she turns around and bangs on the wall. "NO!" she screams, and goes over to the window to rip the curtains off of their rod and throw them on the floor. Laura, already over-stressed, begins to cry as Amanda pulls on the safe door. "FUCK!" She then goes over to the fireplace and starts patting the bricks to look floor the loose ones like Adam had earlier.

"What are you looking for?" demands Jonas with a confused look crossing his face.

Amanda pulls out the loose bricks, grabs the tape recorder, and drops the note on the floor beside her. Jonas growls, "What is that?"

"Everything you need to know is on this..." Amanda murmurs, playing the tape recorder.

It's John's distorted Jigsaw voice talking. "Greetings, and welcome. I trust that you are all wondering where you are. I can assure you that, while your location is not important, what these walls offer for you _is _important. Salvation. If you earn it."

Adam looks around at everyone's worried and confused faces while he listens to the tape. "Three hours, the door to this house will open," the tape goes on. "Unfortunately, you only have two hours to live." Amanda's breath is shallow and shaky as she too listens to the tape. "Right now, you are breathing in a deadly nerve agent. You've been breathing it sense you arrived here. Those of you who are familiar with the Tokyo subway attacks know its devastating effects on the human body. The only way to overcome it and walk out that door is to find an antidote."

Everyone perked up a tiny bit at that word. "Several are hidden around this house. One is inside the safe in front of you. You all possess the combination to the safe. Think hard. The numbers are in the back of your mind. The clues to their order can be found..._over the rainbow. _Once you realize what you all have in common, you will be in a better understanding of why you're here. X marks the spot for that clue. So look carefully. Let the game begin."

The tape came to a stop, and Jonas took the recorder from Amanda. "Who is this?" he demands.

"What does he mean, _gas?" _Addison adds.

"And how'd you know where to find this?" Jonas badgers again.

"This is bullshit," Xavier mutters, picking up the key and the note from off of the floor. He unfolds the note and reads aloud, "'Do not attempt to use this key on the door to this room.' Fuck this, man." He stomps over to the door.

Gus nods and follows Xavier eagerly. "Yeah, fuck this--that's a good idea!"

_"No, _that's _not _a good idea," Adam warns them in a harsh tone, getting up and shaking his head.

"So what are we going to do then, huh?" Xavier snaps, glaring at him.

"The note said not to use the key..." Amanda whimpers, covering her face with her hands.

"Who gives a shit about the note, all right? This is all a fuckin' big god damn joke, and I'm about to end it." Xavier puts the key in the lock while Gus looks through the peephole. And as soon as Xavier turns that key...

The sound of gunfire fills the room, making everyone jump. They all start screaming as Gus sways, his eye bleeding and the back of his head blown open. He falls to the floor, dying instantly. Laura cries with Gus's blood spattered on her shirt. Adam's eyes widen and his mouth gapes open, gasping. This wasn't part of his acting--it was all real. The only (moderately) calm subjects are the boys. All Obi, Xavier, Daniel, and Jonas do is stare, but then...

Jonas corners Amanda again and grabs her by the shoulders so she can't move. "You better start talking right now!" he commands her angrily. "WHAT IS THIS!"

"It's...a game..." Amanda whines, panting in fear.

"It's not a game! That man just got his fucking head blown off!"

"He's...testing us..."

"Who's testing us!?"

"Jigsaw..."

"Who the hell is Jigsaw!?"

"Don't you watch the news?" Addison snaps. Xavier comes after Amanda, but she gets away from him, gasping in terror.

"No, who is he?" Jonas growls.

"He's a serial killer!"

"No he's not!" Amanda interjects. "He's testing us--he wants us to survive this! We have to play by the fucking rules!"

Everyone's quiet after she says that, questions forming in their minds. Adam tries to wipe off some of the blood that spattered on him, but only ends up smearing it. One person dead, one person who failed...

"I'm going to ask you again--how do you know all this?" Jonas asks a little softer.

"Because...I've played before," Amanda whispers, looking down.

Amanda had, in fact, played before. Why had John tested her? Because she was a herion addict at one time. Adam hadn't really been taught the details of her test; it wasn't really any of his business...

Suddenly, the door swings open. The path to salvation is open.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Wow, this is my longest chapter so far! XD Don't worry, Adam will get to do more as the game goes along. XD

Please R&R!

--No More Sorrowxx


	6. Once You're In Hell

**_Misguided Ghost  
No More Sorrowxx  
Chapter 6: Once You're In Hell_**

**Nicoleb: **Yes, Lawrence can definitely be a little annoying sometimes. XD Yeah, good point. Lawrence DID promise Adam that he'd bring back help. And he didn't. Adam had to get saved by John, Amanda, and Hoffman. Oh, don't worry. The angst will go on and on and he will be driven further into Lawrence's arms. :D

**Quinto Addict: **XD Why thank you. Don't worry, there will be plenty more Adam/Lawrence later in the fic. But something has to happen to Amanda first, of course... -shifty eyes- Lol I noticed that and was like, "Hmm...what does that stand for?" XD

It's time for the furnace game! XD Not really my favorite trap, but you know...I can't just skip around. Pardon if I get any of the scenes' lines wrong. I'm doing this totally from memory. (Luckily, I had the Magnum Eyehole scene memorized very well. :D Although I don't have this next one memorized very well at all, so there are a TON of different things.) Don't worry, there's another Adam/Lawrence flashback, and we get to see....

-drumroll-

DIANA. XD Cute kid. :3

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
**The group wanders out of the room, avoiding the pool of blood coming from Gus's head. Adam looks at Amanda, and Amanda looks back at him, seeing the blood that spattered all over his arm. Adam's heart pounds. He doesn't know if he can go through with this. He doesn't know if he can watch all these people die. He doesn't know how he can't just warn them to not to this. But...

Xavier stomps over to the corner of the hallway. There's a wooden bat with metal nails sticking out of it, which it stuck in the floor and leaning against the wall. Xavier takes it out of the floor with little effort and drags it back to the group. "What the hell do you need that for?" Adam mutters.

"No one can hear you, marshmallow," Xavier counters. He continues down the hallway and comes to two doors. Painted in blood red letters across the doors is the word _EXIT. _Xavier takes a big swing at the doors with the bat, breaking them down with each hit. When the doors were destroyed, a metal wall was revealed. And we all know that Xavier couldn't break through that.

"FUCK!" he shouts, hitting the metal wall.

"Well, now that we've established that the macho bullshit approach isn't going to get us anywhere..." Addison sighs, crossing her arms.

Xavier whirls around to face her and glares at her with dark eyes. Dark, cold, unforgiving, desperate eyes. "Shows what you know..." he taunts the prostitute. "The only door you know how to open is between your legs!"

Addison's eyes widen and she gets in his face. That is one thing you never want to say to any woman. Even if it IS true. "Why don't you shut the fuck up!?" she snaps loudly.

"Calm down, calm down," Jonas soothes them. He looks at Xavier for a moment, taking in the bigger man's appearance. "I'd know that tattoo anywhere," he says, acknowledging the rhombus-shaped tattoo on Xavier's arm. "You been to prison?"

"Yeah, and I'm real proud of you for figuring that out!" the man says sarcasstically.

"What about you?" Jonas asks Addison. "What's your correctional facility of choice?"

"Does it matter?" Addison replies, turning away from him arrogantly.

"What about you? You've got juvy wrritten all over you," Jonas comments on Daniel, who's trying to help the crying Laura along.

Daniel looks back at him with unspoken thoughts in his eyes. "No. Never been."

Jonas looks at Adam next. Adam looks down, avoiding the other man's eyes. He hated when people stared into him. Not at him. Into him. "And you?" Jonas asks.

For once, Adam's glad that Xavier answers for him, "He already said he hasn't been. Why the hell do you need to know?"

"Because I think we should be focusing on what that tape said. It said we have more in common than we realize. So we need to figure out what we have in common..."

It's time for Adam to tune out. He leans against the wall and thinks. Thinks about the last time he saw Lawrence. Thinks about Lawrence's family. Thinks about Lawrence's words.

_"Adam, guess who I brought," Lawrence said after Adam opened the door of his apartment. Lawrence had been discharged from the hospital but was taking physical therapy. He still couldn't walk on his foot, but he would probably be able to soon. Well, not walk. Limp. Adam looked at the blonde man, and then looked down. There was little brunette girl standing there, smiling awkwardly. The girl had to be seven or eight years old. Lawrence looked at the little girl and told her softly, "Diana, this is Adam. The man I told you all about."_Amanda and Laura had been looking for doors the whole time that Jonas and Xavier were talking. Now, there's a thunk and Laura exclaims, "Hey! ...I found a door over here!" Adam looks at the timid blonde woman. She'd pressed on a small door to open it. Now there was a new passageway, and hopefully for the test subjects, an antidote. Laura looks at the group, and Adam can see the mascara running on her face and making her resemble a raccoon. Adam wishes he could laugh. Laugh because he can't ever imagine being a woman and wearing all that crap.

While Adam walks to the door, he continues to be lost in thought.

_"Hi there," Diana greeted Adam, giving him a small, uncomfortable wave. Adam never had any experience with kids. He didn't even like kids, honestly. But with Diana just standing there, grinning, Adam melted like putty in the girl's hands._

_"Hello," Adam replied, grinning back. "Your daddy told me about you, too, Diana."_

_"I brought over some dolls for us to play with, Uncle Adam."_

_Adam gave Lawrence a long glance. "Uncle Adam?"_

_"She likes you a lot from what I've told her," Lawrence answered, nodding. Adam would never be able to imagine why._

_Once Adam had gotten Diana to play with her dolls by herself on the coffee table, Adam sat down and talked to Lawrence for a while. "I'm participating in one of the games tomorrow," he began, quiet enough to where Diana wouldn't hear him. "But John says that--" Adam stopped talking when Lawrence widened his eyes._

_"He's going to test you again?" Lawrence demanded. "Adam, you're going to get hurt."_

_"Amanda will be there. We're going to watch out for each other--"_

_"That heroin addict you said attacked you is going to watch out for you?"_

_"I trust her."_

_"Why?"_

_"I just do."_

_"Aren't you worried that she's not like you think she is?"_

_Adam narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"_

"All I want is for you to be careful, Adam."

The group look at where the door leads them. The room is dark, but just the way the light's hitting it, Adam can see that there are some stairs. Carefully, Addison goes down the steps first, and Adam slowly follows.

This room has a furnace in the middle of it, once used for cremated the bodies of the dead. Adam shivers from just thinking about all the bodies being put inside there, and what's in store for this trap's test subject...

"What's that?" Addison mutters, pointing at something. The thing is a hooded, human-like figure sitting in a chair. Xavier storms over to it and turns it around, revealing it to be a corpse-like clown figure with an envelope attached to it by a knife.

"Aw, shit!" Jonas exclaims, jumping.

"Weird..." Daniel murmurs from the stairs, leaning on the railing.

Xavier tears the envelope off of the figure and read what's written in black marker on the outside. _Obi. _"What the fuck is an Oh-Bee?" he mutters in confusion.

"Obi." Adam looks at Obi, who had pretty much been the most silent person in this house. He hasn't really said a word the whole time they've been here. "It's my name," he corrects Xavier. Laura now bites her lip and looks at a shelf of random materials across the room, with things like bottles and cans on it. She glances at Obi, a gleam of confusion crossing her eyes.

Xavier had been carrying the tape recorder with him the whole time. He pulls it out of his pocket quickly, rips open the envelope, and pops the tape in the recorder. He plays the tape, holding it close to his ear so he can listen carefully. "Hello, Obi," John's distorted Jigsaw voice says. "I want to play a game. For years, you have burned those around you with your lies, cons and deceits. Now you'll have a chance to redeem yourself from the games you've played with others by playing one of mine. Inside the device in front of you are two of the antidotes for the poison coursing through your veins. One is my gift to you for helping me kidnap the others. The second is yours to donate."

Xavier's eyes widen and he casts Obi a long, hateful stare. The group looks at each other, all thinking the same dreadful things in their heads. "However, one of them will come with a price," the tape goes on. "Remember, Obi. Once you're in hell, only the devil can help you out." The tape clicks to a stop.

After the tape is done, Jonas growls, "Wait a minute. What does he mean, kidnap the others?"

"How would I know?" Obi replies calmly.

"Because you put us in here," Laura rasps, the gas taking effect on her voice. Adam stares at the quiet, blonde woman, waiting for all of this to unfold. "The car!" she gasps, looking down with her eyes flashing in memory. "It was...I knew I knew him!" Yes, it was true. Obi had kidnapped Laura. "You're the last person I saw before I woke up here...You did this!"

"Are you sure it's him?" Adam offers, even though he already knows what happened. "I mean, the gas is all taking a toll on us right now...It could've been--"

"I'm sure..."

"What can I say?" Obi mumbles. "I did what I had to do."

Xavier quickly grabs the knife from out of the corpse-figure and points it at Obi. "You've got five seconds to get us out of here!" he threatens.

"I don't know the way out."

Laura angrily pushes one of the bottles off of the shelf, making it shatter into hundreds of pieces. "Bullshit!" she cries. "You put us in here, you can get us out of here!"

"No I can't. I'm sorry."

Xavier makes a mad dash at Obi, even though Addison tries to hold him back. "No, no, no, wait, wait!" she gasps quickly. "Wait, listen to me! We've got two antidotes at the back of that oven! We're wasting time here!"

"Wasting time--are you KIDDING ME!?" Laura snaps. "He kidnapped me in the middle of the night!"

"We don't even know what's in those cyringes," Jonas adds. "You're willing to stick yourself in the arm to find out?"

Addison coughs into her hand violently suddenly. When she pulls her hand away, Adam can see there's blood all over it. "Yeah, I am," she answers.

"Wait, there's two cyringes, so which two people get them?" Daniel points out.

"We'll work that out later!" Xavier snaps. Adam watches as Laura, stricken by fear and ill from the gas, falls to her knees. Amanda hurries down from the top of the stairs to help her as a kindness. "You're going in there." Xavier holds the knife to Obi's neck. Obi doesn't move. He just stands there, a statue being stared upon by the rest of the group. "Or I'll kill you where you stand!"

Still showing no fear, Obi moves the knife from his neck, grazing himself a tiny bit. "If you're going to threaten me with a knife, you might as well cut me a little. Guess I'm going in there to get those needles..." Obi walks to the furnace door and slowly crawls inside. He slinks his way to the middle of the furnace where two antidotes hang from it by strings. He pulls the first one down easily, tearing it off of the string.

"Hurry up in there..." Amanda tells him quietly, helping Laura up from off of the floor.

Obi reaches for the next one, but it's stuck tightly. "You guys can fight over this one," he decides. And then Obi gives the antidote another sharp tug. And without warning...

The furnace door slams closed. "Oh, shit!" Adam exclaims, gasping and peering through the door. The string had been linked to the furnace door the whole time. Obi could've stopped this from happening if he had listened to the rules a little bit closer. Adam knew from John's words that there was a knob by the front of the furnace with a picture of the devil painted near it.

"Hey, open the door!" Obi shouts.

And then, it happens. The flames shoot out from the bottom of the oven, near the furnace door. This was Obi's hell. "Open the door!" he repeats loudly. The flames edge closer and closer to him as he kicks around near the back of the oven near a small window.

Xavier and Adam both pull on the door handle. "It's locked--I can't open it!" Xavier exclaims loudly.

"OPEN THE DOOR!! OPEN THAT FUCKING DOOR!!" Adam bites his lip. He's not used to seeing people so desperate for their lives, even if he has been working as a Jigsaw apprentice for three months. He lets go of the door handle and backs away from the furnace slowly, the light of the flames reflecting off of his eyes as he watches Obi.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?" Xavier screams at Adam, but Adam doesn't move at all. "COME ON, GET HIM OUT OF THERE!"

Obi squeals and cries as the flames touch his feet. There's no getting out of this now. No going back. Amanda has wandered over to the shelf in search of something to help. She glances back at the furnace, biting her lip like Adam. Laura, on the other hand, covers her ears as if she can't take all of the screaming. Xavier tries once more to pull the door open, but it's become so hot that as soon as he touches it, he pulls his hand away in pain.

"USE YOUR COAT!!" Addison offers Obi. "USE YOUR FUCKING COAT!! Instead of Obi, Jonas takes off his own coat and waves it over the furnace door to no avail. Obi's now cowering in the corner in the back of the furnace, screaming and crying in terror. And then, the flames have finally all spread through the furnace. Obi bellows in agony, his face turning red.

"Guys, there's a window over here!" Daniel had looked at the back of the oven and is now pointing to it. Jonas and Xavier rush back there quickly. There's no way to open the little window except to smash it. As soon as they make it back there, a hand hits the glass window, making both Jonas and Xavier jump.

Adam can't take it anymore. He looks away, unable to watch this horror any longer. "We're going to get you out!" Jonas tells Obi. He takes the nail bat from Xavier and hits the window as hard as he can, making it shatter. And out pops Obi, screaming and begging for help. But, unfortunately, only one of his arms and his head can fit through the small window. Like Adam, Amanda has to look away. Someone burning alive is not really a pleasant sight to witness.

Obi bellows one last time and then closes his eyes, looking down. He doesn't move again. He's failed his test. He's lost his chance to reclaim his life. Seeing him die, Laura, Amanda, and Addison all start gasping in shock. Then Addison turns away, her eyes filling with tears. Smoke makes it way through the room as well as the screaming dies down, making the room totally silent except for the sound of crackling flames.

Xavier, who had backed away from the furnace to witness Obi's last moments, now dashed at him and grabbed his hand, looking for the antidotes. "The needles! I want the fucking needles!"

"Well, too bad," Adam mutters, glancing back at the furnace. He then stomps to the stairs, covering his face with his hands.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Heh heh, sucks to be you, Obi! XD

Please R&R!

--No More Sorrowxx


	7. I Won't Cry

**_Misguided Ghost  
No More Sorrowxx  
Chapter 7: I Won't Cry_**

**Bluejay4509**I am honored that you love my story. Actually, I had a little plan concerning Laura's death. Instead of dying by the nerve gas, she dies of a different trap. And instead of the hand trap, Addison dies by another trap. Don't worry--Laura will be one of the last ones to die.

**_IAmMadlyInLoveWithJohnnyDepp _**Nice to hear from you again! XD And yes, Adam is very cute when he's angsty. XD

_**Quinto Addict **_Thank you! XD I'm trying my hardest to remember all of it.

Next, we have the famous needle pit. Some of you Adam fans will hate me for this chapter, but mind that it would be really boring if all Adam got to do was watch. Instead, I thought that like Amanda, he should participate in one of the games. And you'll also love Scrawny, Huggable Teddy Bear in this chapter because he's all angsty. XD

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Adam wanders back up the stairs, shaking his head disdainfully. "Adam!" Adam looks over his shoulder at Amanda, who is on the bottom step of the stairs looking up at him with brown eyes. "What are you doing?" she mutters.

"I'm coming back upstairs because I don't want to see a fucking dead body, Amanda," Adam snaps, looking away from her and getting all the way up the stairs. He just knows he's going to have another nightmare again after playing this game, this frightening game. A nightmare similar to this one. He always has nightmares now. Ever since his hours in the bathroom.

Sometimes he dreams that he's in Allison's place, having a gun held to his head. Having Zep threaten him. Being ignorant on what's happening to the person he loves, and just saying things that Zep puts into his mouth.

Sometimes he dreams that he's in his bedroom, restrained to to that chair again. Having Amanda sit on his lap. Having her stroke his cheek. Except in this dream, it's not a knife Amanda's holding. It's a gun. And instead of cutting him, she shoves the gun into his mouth like Adam had seen killers do on T.V. And instead of talking about life, Amanda would murmur inaudible things just to get Adam's ears straining and intimidating him.

Sometimes he dreams that he's still sitting in the bathroom, his shoulder aching and his stomach moaning with a lust for food. He'll lay on the floor in the bathroom, his vision fading in and out, trying desperately to get the chain off of his ankle. He'll beg for Lawrence to come back. He'll beg for Lawrence to save him. But Lawrence won't come.

And then Adam's eyes will open, and he'll sit up rapidly. His dark hair will be wet and sticking to his head from sweat. He doesn't smoke very much anymore, only when he's really angry or depressed. But sometimes, instead of smoking, he'll call someone. He'll call someone who he cares about very much. Sometimes he'll look at the clock and decide not to call that someone, not wanting to wake that someone up at an unreasonable hour. That's when he'll grab a cigarette, light it up, and go out on his balcony to smoke for a few minutes.

But when it's an okay time to call that person, Adam rips his phone out of its charger, dials the number, and holds the phone to his ear. That someone he's calling is always Lawrence. Because Lawrence is often up at this time of night. But when Lawrence answers the phone, Adam's throat closes and he blinks the tears out of his eyes. He tries to tell Lawrence what's wrong in a calm manner, but his voice always cracks or shakes to where he can't keep his throat closed and he can't blink back the tears any longer.

It's not that way with Amanda. He can't just open himself up to her. He's still afraid of her a little bit. He's afraid of what she'll do to him. She already could've killed him once. She can always try to kill him again. So it's no wonder that Adam just turns his back on her and continues walking. He doesn't want her to see his face twisted with grief. Adam won't ever let anyone see him this way. He'll hide his face. He'll hide his sorrow. And he doesn't mind hiding the sorrow for a while. He doesn't want anyone's pity. He doesn't want anyone telling him it'll be okay. It's fine for a while. But when Adam's all alone, he'll shut his door, curl up, and sob.

"Adam, look at me," Amanda says. Adam doesn't look. He just pauses, so Amanda sighs. "You're not alone in this, Adam. I'm playing this game with you. I saw Obi die to. So pull yourself together, please."

"For fuck's sake, would you just leave me alone already?" Adam snaps, looking at her over his shoulder again. Amanda flinches, flinches because Adam doesn't usually talk to her in that way. Then, she narrows her eyes and shrugs before walking up the stairs.

Adam walks to another staircase as the rest of the group follows Amanda. An idea pops into his hand before he looks at everyone and says, "I think some of us should split up to find the other antidotes." The reason Adam says this is because he just wants to be alone.

"Split up?" Jonas echoes, narrowing his eyes. "That's not a very good idea. Something could jump out at one of us."

"That's why we divide ourselves into groups," Amanda explains, seeming to agree with Adam's plan. "Laura, Daniel, Adam and I will be in one group. You, Addison, and Xavier will be in the other group. Is that okay with you, Jonas?"

Jonas purses his lips, giving it some thought. "Okay," he agrees. "We'll search for antidotes upstairs, and you guys search for them down here."

Amanda nods and Addison, Xavier, and Jonas walk to another staircase. The trio go up the stairs, leaving Laura, Daniel, Amanda and Adam behind on the first floor.

Laura sits herself down into a corner sullenly, hugging her knees to her chest feebly. "Are you all right?" Daniel asks her sympathetically.

She looks up at him. "No..." she mutters. Her voice cracks, getting squeakier. "This can't be it...There's so much left to do...So many people left to talk to..."

"It's not it," Daniel encourages her. He lets out a long, heavy sigh and then looks at Amanda, who's on the top of the stairs, pretending to search under a rug for something. "Amanda! You said you survived this before, right?"

"I what?" Amanda replies loudly, not taking her eyes off of what she was doing.

"She did survive it, and I survived it too," Adam confirms, looking at Daniel and nodding.

"Maybe we can survive it too," Daniel says hopefully.

Amanda looks up at him, pursing her lips for a moment before giving an unconvincing answer. "Yeah. Maybe."

"So this guy...Why did he choose you?"

"Because, I was a fucking junky," Amanda tells him flatly. "Herion. Apparently, I was taking my life for granted."

Daniel pauses before answering, taking in the woman's appearance. "But why'd he choose you again?"

"I haven't been taking very good care of myself..." Amanda says quieter, looking at the bandages on her wrists. In her free time, Amanda cut herself. She cut herself on her thighs and on her wrists more than anywhere. She does it to get rid of all the pain and misery she's feeling. Adam never understands why someone would cut themselves. He's just not that kind of person. "I started in jail."

"My dad's a cop..." Daniel mutters. "He's a real hard-ass, too. He's probably out there looking for me, just so he can kick my ass for disappearing on him."

"Hmm, yeah, probably." Amanda gets up and turns around to see Jonas coming for her.

"We found a door, but we can't open it," Jonas informs everyone.

"All right," Adam says, walking up the stairs. Daniel holds out a hand to Laura and helps her up. All of them walk up the stairs and to a hallway, where Xavier and Addison are trying to push open a door.

"If it's stuck, it's a trap," Amanda warns them quietly.

"Lady, this whole house is one big fucking trap," Xavier snaps, glancing back at her with cold eyes. He grunts as he pushes on the stuck door, actually having to use effort to open it. And with one finally shove...

The door swings open, pulling a wire attached to the timer of another door. Four minutes appears on the other door's timer. The room before the group is decrepit like the rest of the house, the wooden floor creaking with each step. In the middle of the room are some old bed springs, covering up something...

"What do we have to do?" mutters Addison.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, we have four minutes to get it done," Jonas replies.

Daniel looks around the room, pursing his lips and then finding an envelope. Jonas stares at him and then pulls the tape recorder out of his pocket, both of them thinking the same thing. Daniel rips open the envelope, gives the tape to Jonas, and watches as the older man plays the tape.

"Hello, Xavier," says John's distorted voice. Xavier turns around, staring at the tape recorder, with wide and curious eyes. "I want to play a game. The game I want to play is very similar to the one that you've been playing as a drug dealer. The game of offering hope to the desperate, for a price. I think we can agree that your situation is desperate. So I offer you hope. The price that you pay is that you must crawl into the same pit of squalor you force your customers into."

Jonas grabs the bed springs, struggling with Daniel to pick them up and move them out of the way. The tape went on, "By entering this room, a timer has been started. When the timer expires, the door in front of you will be locked forever. Only in finding the key before the timer runs out can you unlock and retrieve the antidote inside. I will give you just one hint as to where that key is: it will be like finding a needle in a haystack. Let the game begin."

"Guys!" Daniel exlcaims, pointing to the middle of the room after the springs are moved. Everyone stares at the gruesome sight in front of them, a large pit full of thousands and thousands of disgusting, used needle cyringes. This is Xavier's test.

Xavier snarls loudly, "Someone's going in there!" But no one moves, not even an inch. Why would they? It's common to have a fear of needles. Xavier glances around at everyone, and then looks at Amanda. Amanda looks up at him disdainfully, not guessing what he's thinking at first. And then Xavier comes after her.

Amanda tries to get away from him, screaming in protest, but Xavier grabs her by her arms, picks her up, and holds her over the edge of the needle pit. "Whoa, whoa, what the hell are you doing!?" Adam snaps, glaring at Xavier and trying to block him. But Xavier throws Amanda into the pit shamelessly, watching as she falls with satisfaction.

Amanda screams and cries at the top of her lungs, her eyes practically bugging out of her head, her mouth gaping open in shock. The needles easily stick into her arms and legs. Rage clouds Adam's vision as he glares at Xavier. "It's YOUR test, you fucker!" he yells at the larger man.

"Yes, it is, but you and her are BOTH going to look for that fucking key!" Xavier exclaims. Adam's eyes widen like Amanda's as Xavier pushes him over the side of the pit.

Adam lands in the needles beside Amanda, his heart pounding against his chest. There are stabs of pain all throughout his body, one especially in his hand. He looks at his left hand. Blood runs through his fingers as he stares at the wound a needle had made by stabbing through his whole hand. He tries not to think of the words "agony," or "searing." He's not going to scream. He's not going to let his throat close. He's not going to cry. He won't let himself. No matter what. But he's doing all of that stuff on the inside. _No. Please. Oh. God. Help. Me. Help. Me. Stop. This..._

"Find the key!" he hears Xavier hiss.

"You don't know how this feels..." Adam growls, starting to sweat. He squints his eyes closed, trying to move from the spot. But he knows what will happen if he does. He'll be stabbed by more and more needles. It's inevitable that it will happen now. Just like it's inevitable that all of Adam's emotions will spill out. Adam swipes his hand through the needles, attempting to search for the key. He swipes and swipes and swipes, starting to sweat. _Oh. God. Help. Me. Please._

Unlike Adam, Amanda's wailing as she sits up, examining the needles stuck in her arms and legs. She looks at Adam with her huge eyes, gasping in pain. Adam stares back at her. _Oh. God. Help. Me. Please._

"DO IT NOW!!" Xavier snarls.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" Adam screams, his emotions getting the best of him. He swipes his hand through the needles as hard as he can, sending some of them flying back behind him. Amanda, too, helps dig for the key, tears rolling down her face. The two apprentices swipe through the needles, sending them flying everywhere. Adam doesn't know how much time is left. He doesn't know how many needles are stuck in him right now. All he can sense is his own agony from head to toe.

And suddenly, as he swipes one last time, Adam notices a small glowing thing among the thousands of needles. It's a key, attached to a glowstick. He throws his arm forward to grab it and then throws it up at Xavier with great force. He hears footsteps above, most like being Xavier's.

"NO!!" Xavier suddenly yells, banging on the metal door. "No, no, no!" Addison and Daniel reach for both Amanda and Adam. The apprentices take the outstreched hands and let themselves be pulled back up onto the wooden floor. Adam collapses on the floor, holding his left hand, which is bleeding more than any needle-marked spot on his body. He gasps and tries to pull the needle in his hand out, but is unable to do it because of the pain. Amanda sobs beside him as Daniel tries to pull the needles out on her.

Steaming mad, Xavier stomps toward them and pushes Daniel out of the way, but before he can do anything, Addison screams to get their attention. "Stop this bullshit!" she snaps. "There's go to be something...we're not seeing..."

Laura, who had walked out and wasn't able to watch what had happened, wanders back inside the room, murmuring, "Jail. You guys have all been. I have too..."

"They haven't," Jonas points out, gesturing towards Daniel and Adam. "There's got to be something else we all have in common..."

Adam doesn't care anymore. He just holds his hand, squints his eyes closed, and waits for Daniel to pull the needles out of his body.

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Poor Adam! T.T Well, hope you enjoyed the needles! XD

Please R&R!

--No More Sorrowxx


	8. Play With Fire

**_Misguided Ghost  
No More Sorrowxx  
Chapter 8: Play With Fire_**

**EmeraldDragon93:**It is? Really? O.O Thanks a bunch!

_**IAmMadlyInLoveWithJohnnyDepp: **_Yes, the second one kinda sucked because a bunch of the characters died off before they got to their traps. -sigh- Don't worry, Amanda will leave soon! -pokes Jeff- He's ready to get rid of her for you! But not yet. Not yet.

In this chapter, it's about thirty minutes after the group discovered the needle pit. Now it's time for Addison's trap. I don't own this trap, btw. Leigh and James do! Also, I kind of added something to this trap... Remember Danica's trap, how it was a freezer and she was getting sprayed with freezing water? Well, it's reversed. Now it's a steam room with freakishly hot water. :D So now you've probably guessed what trap Laura will die from. That trap is ALSO in this chapter. Yay. -waves flag-

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It's been about thirty minutes. Adam's wounds are still sore, and he's wrapped his hand the fabric of a curtain he'd ripped up. How much time did they have left? Adam never wears a watch, so the time is always a mystery to him.

The group walks through the house and down a hallway. Xavier, of course, is leading the way, dragging the nail bat behind him. Laura is coughing up blood like crazy, a sign that she can't take much more the gas straining on her nerves. Amanda walks ahead when she sees a door at the end of the hall.

"Don't go in there," Addison warns, crossing her arms.

"Don't you want to get an antidote?" Daniel counters, looking at the woman.

"Not like this. We shouldn't have to do this!"

"Fine, then let the nerve gas continue to break down your body tissue," Amanda mutters, stepping out of the way. She looks at Addison over her shoulder as she goes to stand beside Adam.

"I'm not going in there," Laura rasps, her eyes darkening. "It's probably a trap, and..." She breaks off into a coughing fit, holding her hands to her face.

"Well, someone has to," Addison decides, looking around at the group.

"Since when do you decide all that?" Xavier hisses, glaring at the short woman. Addison glowers back at him scornfully.

"You know what?" she growls, looking around the group again with a brown gaze. And then her gaze stops. Her gaze stops on Adam. Adam, who's eyes widen. "You're going in there, silent boy.

"Yeah, you didn't get me my fucking key in time!" Xavier agrees, poking Adam in the chest.

Adam flinches, gnashes his teeth together, and shakes his head. "What in fuck's name makes you think I'll go through that door? I'm not getting myself hurt because of your lazy ass." And to Adam's surprise, Jonas pushes him forward. Adam looks back at the older man, biting his lip.

"Do it now," Jonas commands, a bit of ice in his voice.

"Or what?" Adam challenges. He's not about to let these people push him around. He didn't move out of his parents' house to let strangers order him around.

"You should be asking me that," Xavier answers, eying the nail bat. Adam frowns. Xavier WOULD hurt Adam. WOULD beat him with the nail bat.

Adam looks back and forth between the two man and sighs, "Whatever, dumbfucks..." Then he goes to the paint-chipped door and attempts to push it open. No avail. He pushes even harder. No avail. Adam places his palms against the wood and tries once more to push it open. John and Hoffman sure made sure that this door would be tough to open...

Without warning, the door swings open and hits the wall with a thud. Adam, who had been leaning against it to open it, is now leaning against nothing but air. He immediately falls over and hits the floor, gasping in surprise. Amanda chuckles behind him, so he glowers back at her.

The room before the group is full of shelves of miscellanious items, like knives or ropes or clocks. On one of the shelves is a large, round device similar to that of a waffle iron. In the top of the device hangs an antidote by a string. The antidote is there, plain as day, waiting for someone to grab it and inject it into their system. Taped onto the side of the device is a small envelope with a name scribbled on it. At the top of the room are large air vents, and built in the shelves are hoses, poised to spray anyone who touches the device. The test subject is none other than the woman who had demanded Adam come in this room.

_Addison._

Upon entering this room, hot air sprays out of the vents above. Adam looks up at the vents silenty. "That's easy!" Addison laughs, her face brightening with joy. "We just have to grab it, right?"

"Wait, listen to the tape before you do anything!" Amanda warns as Addison reaches for the antidote. She knocks Addison out of the way, tears the envelope off of the waffle iron device, and looks around. "Where's the recorder?"

"Here," Jonas replies, reaching into his pocket and pulling the recorder out. Amanda nods a thanks to him and takes the tape recorder. She rips Addison's envelope open and plays the tape in the tiny silver recorder.

"Hello, Addison," says John's distorted voice. Addison puts one finger to her lips, puzzled by Jigsaw calling her out. "You don't know me, but I most certainly know you. I know the sort of things you do. You're desperate for attention. You exploit your body to get what you want. This is not the way you should use yourself. You must learn that you can't get everything by keeping your looks. You get burned so bad by the fire you play in, but you continue to corrupt yourself again and again. Today that way of thinking will be put to the test, Addison. In the device in front of you hangs an antidote. By now you've probably learned that each antidote comes with a price. Are you willing to use you looks to get the antidote and play in your fire again? Are you willing to get burned again to save yourself from the poison coursing through your system? Make your choice."

Addison looks at the device, biting her lip. "Wonder what happens if I pull on the string..." she murmurs.

"The trap will start," Jonas points out helpfully.

"That's why I won't pull," Addison replies quietly, reaching for the antidote with her left hand. The string has been tied to the antidote by a tiny knot, so tiny that no matter how hard Addison pulls on it with her nails, it will not come loose. "Oh, dammit..." She then tries to get it with her other hand. She plucks on the knot more and more.

"Careful!" Adam warns, his eyes widening.

Frustrated, Addison lets out a groan and then finally gives the string a small tug. The antidote loosens, but it's not enough. She tugs one more, but....

The waffle iron device clamps shut on both of her hands. Addison cries in pain, her dark eyes widening like eggs in a skillet. "What--what--what!?" she screams, gasping.

"What's happening?" gasps Laura, her mouth gaping open in shock. Adam watches. Adam watches and waits for the trap to begin. He watches the scalding steam spray out of the vent above and feels its wet, hot presence touch his skin. He flinches and steps back, trying to avoid the burning steam.

Suddenly, Addison bellows at the top of her lungs. The waffle iron device is heating up and burning her hands. And if that isn't enough pain on her, the hoses spray otherwordly temperature water all of her skin. "HELP ME!!" she begs, wiggling around. But there's no freeing her hands. Not unless...

Not unless she puts pressure on the top of the device with her face. In red letters, on the top of the device, spells out the word: _Sacrifice. _But Addison doesn't realize this. She doesn't realize that all she has to do is scar her face and escape with a minor injury. She doesn't realize that she could easily save her life.

"We've got to help her!" Jonas shouts to the group. But no one steps forward. No one's going to burn for Addison's sake. "She's going to burn to death! Help her!" No one's going to step further into that scalding steam to get burnt. Jonas glares at Adam. The bigger man grabs Adam by his shirt and flings him forward into the steam.

"ADAM!" gasps Amanda. She stares at Adam, reaches out to him, but then pulls her extended hand back at out of the spraying steam.

Adam screams, looking overhead at the vent and blinking the water out of his eyes. His hair and clothes are sopping and dripping wet. His skin is burning close to something fierce. He's never been in so much agony. Getting shot did not hurt this bad. Amanda cutting him did not hurt this bad. Getting pricked and stabbed by the needles did not hurt this bad.

This was a whole new kind of pain.

Adam doesn't get up from where he lay. He just glances around, too stunned by his own agony to move. "GET UP!! ADAM, GET UP!" Amanda shouts at him. "GET UP!"

"Shut the fuck _up!" _Adam croaks, placing his palms on the concrete floor of the room to help himself up. Blood was beginning to form on his arms from the burns. He glances at Addison, who is still pleading for help. The steam, scalding water, and the waffle iron device are burning her alive. Adam crawls back out of the vicinity of the steam, trembling. Amanda bends down to him as he leans against the wall, tearless sobs wracking his body.

Addison is now hanging by a thread, her skin bleeding and mutilated from all of her burns. Her screaming has gone down to a pathetic whimper. Her struggles die down. Finally, she falls to her knees. She leans her head against the shelf and closes her eyes. She doesn't move again.

"Is she dead?" Daniel whispers, glancing from person to person.

"I...I..." Laura stutters, sniffling pathetically.

"Serves her right..." mutters Xavier, shaking his head. Adam glares up at him, his hair sticking to his forehead. How is he going to endure the rest of this? They're forcing him into all this. He doesn't want to do this anymore...

_Lawrence..._

Help me...

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[insert a/n here]

Please R&R!

-- No More Sorrowxx


	9. I Won't Tell You

**_Misguided Ghost  
No More Sorrowxx  
Chapter 9: I Won't Tell You_**

Okay, so I decided to use a time skip in this chapter. Don't hate me for it--I'm doing it for _YOU CHAINSHIPPERS. _I'm doing it for more AL! Adam explains a lot of what happened in this chapter to Lawrence, and then Lawrence and Adam...Well, they don't...you know...But they do have a hot moment. Bet you just can't wait, huh? :D Don't kill me for for the timeskip!

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Adam's waking up.

He's aching everywhere.

He's trying remember that last thing that happened...

He's trying to remember why his skin stings.

Then he does remember, but only a bit.

He remembers running. Why was he running? Adam puts a hand to his forehead. Something's throbbing near his hairline. He feels it. It's throbbing undernearth a bandage. Why?

Maybe it's because Xavier killed Jonas with the nail bat. Maybe it's because Adam was afraid that he'd also killed Laura. Maybe it was because he was afraid that Xavier would get them next. Why had they been afraid?

The numbers. The numbers on the back of each victims' neck. They were each a number to the combination of the safe in the first room. Xavier had hunted Amanda, Daniel, and Adam down to the bathroom find the numbers. Adam had resisted against Xavier and engaged in a brief fight with him before Xavier had banged the smaller man's head against the tile wall hard enough to make him lose conciousness.

So here he lay.

In a room with white walls.

In a bed, covered by a blanket.

And there's someone sitting in a chair across the white room. Adam takes a minute to realize who it is. He's collecting his memories. This man is older than he, and his hair is dirty blonde. He's wearing one shoe and a cast on his other foot. He has two crutches propped on the armrests of the chair beside him. The man looks up at Adam.

Lawrence.

He's here.

"Well, now I'm the one who's visiting _you _in the hospital, Adam," Lawrence jokes, but it's an empty joke, as if there's nothing to joke about. And there isn't. "Amanda explained to me that one of your test subjects banged your head against the wall so hard that it knocked you out...She also explained that you injured your hand and got burnt really bad....By the looks of it, I can see that she certainly didn't lie..."

Adam doesn't answer at first. His eyes are fuzzy with sleep. Sleep is a wonderful thing to him. He doesn't like going to bed early, but he certainly loves sleep. He stares at Lawrence before simply saying, "I don't want to do this anymore..."

He doesn't want to be a Jigsaw apprentice. He would rather just go back to his life he had before John put him in the bathroom.

"Then don't."

Adam's eyes widen at Lawrence's remark. Then, his eyes narrow. "He's going to put me back in the bathroom if I don't..." he whispers strongly. He looks down. "I don't know what to do anymore...I don't know why I need to fucking do anything, I just...I just want to stop." His hands are shaking.

What is the point of all this rehabilitation anyways?

People are just people.

People are imperfect. That's just the way things are.

"Listen to me, Adam," says Lawrence. "You don't have to do this. John Kramer doesn't own you."

"It feels like it, man. I don't want to go back in there, Lawrence! I thought I was never going to get out of there once! And now that I'm free, I just, I just...I just want to forget about being in there!"

Lawrence's gaze softens. It softens because Lawrence is the only person who knows what Adam is going through. He knows how Adam's mind works. He knows how Adam hates to even remotely think about the bathroom. "I know, Adam," he replies. "Believe me, I know what you're going through. I was there too. You can forget. I'll help you forget. And if John Kramer doesn't like it, well, he can fucking deal with it. It's your life, and you can do whatever the hell you want with it."

"This just goes off of your tongue real smooth, doesn't it?" Adam mutters. "Did you talk to Allison about this or something?"

But Lawrence doesn't answer.

Adam understands the bathroom.

Allison doesn't. There's no way he can ever talk about it to her. There's no way he can describe it to where she understands. "It's hard to talk to her about some things," Lawrence sighs. "That's why I like it when you visit me or I come visit you. You can relate to that experience."

Adam's lip curves up. "Yep, aren't you glad you have me?" he chuckles. He doesn't have to be alone in this. He stares at Lawrence for a long moment before saying, "Because I'm glad I have you...."

And then Lawrence does something that Adam can't believe. He starts sobbing. He puts his head in his hands and just lets it out. And then he uses his crutches to limp over to Adam. He looks into the injured man's eyes and whimpers, "I need you...Adam, I fucking need you..."

Adam's eyes widen again. What's Lawrence doing as he sits on the bed? Why's he sobbing so much now? Adam knows he's going to say something, but he just can't force himself to get it off of his tongue. "All...Allison doesn't understand me anymore, and you do," he whispers, leaning forward and throwing his arms around Adam's neck. "I need you, I need you, I need you...John won't take you away from me."

Lawrence is letting this all out to Adam, Adam who hides his feelings and bottles them up in a bottle to where it's squeezed shut so tightly. He wants Adam to let his feelings out now. Lawrence squeezes Adam's left hand as hard as he can. "I'm not going to let you go back into the bathroom..." he murmurs. "Now there's something I want to tell you."

Adam narrows his eyes again. "What?"

"I don't know if I should."

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?"

And then he says it.

He fucking says it.

He fucking says those five fucking words that make Adam's heart fill up all the way to the top and pound against his chest so hard.

"I love you, Adam Faulkner. I won't let anything happen to you. We're here for each other..."

And then he does it. He lets his lips go over Adam's. Just like that.

Adam's feeling a whole lot of things. He's feeling puzzled by Lawrence's words. But with Lawrence's lips over his, he can't help but smiling.

And when Lawrence breaks the kiss and looks at Adam, Adam murmurs softly, "What...?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Oh, chainshipping is so HOT! XD

Please R&R!

-- No More Sorrowxx


	10. Sacrifice

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_Misguided Ghost_

By No More Sorrowxx

Chapter 10: Sacrifice

EmeraldDragon93:

Why thank you. XD

_**SawManiac211:**_

Thanks! XD I try. Um, you'll see I guess. XD

_**IAmMadlyInLoveWithJohnnyDepp:**_

I'm sure you will like this chapter such more. XD

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Adam's heart pounds.

Lawrence did not just fucking do that.

He did not just kiss him.

But he did.

The words come tumbling out of Adam's mouth protest. "What the _hell _are you talking about!?" he snaps. "You're _married, _for God's sake. You have a kid! You can't possibly _love _me, Lawrence!"

Lawrence is taken aback. He gets up, looking down and afraid to meet Adam's eyes.

Adam sits up and then cringes; he'd put all his weight on his injured hand to sit up. Pain rushes through it, burning like fire. Adam bites his lip and looks at his hand for a long moment.

"You okay?" Lawrence asks, finally looking back up at him.

"Yes, my hand is perfectly fine, thank you," Adam mutters.

"I mean what I said."

Adam stares. Oh, great. He'd been trying to get a woman to love him. Now Lawrence is coming out of the closet at one of the worst times. Well, maybe it's not one of the worst of times. They're both alone, and if Lawrence chooses to come out of the closet right now, this might be a perfect time. "You have Allison," Adam replies quietly. "You need to go home to her. You need to kiss her. You need to show her love tonight, Lawrence. You need to be there for her. Not _me. _There's no way we can make this work."

"I _want _it to work!" Lawrence snaps.

Adam wants it to work to. He wants to see Lawrence every day like this, be able to talk to him. Be able to have someone to care about him. But Adam can't give that back. Adam has nothing to give. He doesn't even have enough to give himself. He comes from tobacco, cigarettes, beer, LSD, late night parties, one night stands...And Lawrence comes from hospitals, a wife, a daughter, people who care about him. Lawrence knows what to give to Adam. But Adam doesn't know what to give to Lawrence. And that's the hardest part right now.

No.

The hardest part is that Adam can't cope with this. He wants his fingers to tremble. He wants to be able to look at Lawrence straight in the eyes, and tell him that he doesn't love him back. He wants to tell Lawrence that this can never work one more time. He wants to say that Lawrence needs to go home to Allison and remind himself how much he loves her. He wants to explain his fears.

And that would not be acceptable.

He _can't _say those things. Somehow his brain just won't let him. Because Lawrence is irreplaceable.

Adam wants it to work just as much as Lawrence does.

Then the door opens.

And someone ruins what Adam was about to say.

The woman is blonde and absolutely just beautiful. Adam guesses who she is by the photos Lawrence showed him of her and because of Diana's hand holding hers. This is Allison Gordon. And Allison Gordon is going to ruin everything.

Suddenly, Adam's animosity for Allison spreads through the air, as if you can step into a big red cloud of it. As if it can choke you and make your eyes water like a gas. Allison kisses Lawrence on the cheek while Diana squeaks, "Hi, Daddy!"

"Hey, baby," Lawrence says to Diana, bending down and kissing her on the cheek instead of Allison. Allison stares at Adam. She, too, can probably fill Adam's cloud of animosity.

"Hello, Adam," Allison greets him, her eyes unreadable. "I'm Allison, and you've met Diana, right?"

"Yes," says Adam flatly. He can't hide his own scorn. He needs to tell Lawrence what he was going to say! He wills for Allison to get out of the room, but she just won't leave.

Allison. That little scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal only if you could stop tonguing at it. But you can't.

"Lawrence told me you got burned really bad--I can see that. What were you doing?"

Well, wouldn't _she _like to know?

"He was rough-housing with one of his enemies and they sprayed him with super hot water," Lawrence answers for him. Adam almost sighs with relief. He's glad that Lawrence hadn't told Diana about Adam working with Jigsaw.

Allison wrinkles her nose suddenly, and then glances back at Adam. She whispers something in Diana's ear, and then whispers it to Lawrence. Adam narrows his eyes. He knows she's talking about him, but she doesn't have to make it so blatant.

"Do you smoke?" Allison asks suddenly.

"Yeah," Adam growls. "So?"

"Around my child?"

"No. Even if I do, I go out on the balcony and do it so she doesn't have to breathe the smoke."

"That's very considerate of you, but I'd appreciate if you'd quit smoking all together. If Larry's going to take her to see you, she shouldn't have to breathe that."

"Ally."

Adam glances at Lawrence, half-amused that his voice came out so sharply.

"I thought I just told you I make sure she doesn't breathe it. _Ally." _Adam is willing to go to war with her.

"Yes, but if you're going to ever visit us, then you shouldn't walk into our house smelling like smoke," Allison counters.

_"Ally."_

"Who ever said I wanted to fucking visit you, Allison? I don't need to breathe smoke into you house for you."

"Would you please watch your language?" Allison glances at Diana, who's stifling a laugh because of her kid immaturity.

"No. I don't have to listen to you, Allison. You can't just march in here and tell me what to do. You're not my mom." If Allison was his mom, she'd be a brunette with huge boobs and she'd be in a relationship with a drug abusing gang member. But Adam didn't add that.

"No, I'm not, and I'm sure she's a nice person--"

Ha.

"--but Adam, you just need to..." Allison trails off.

_"Allison!" _Allison looks at Lawrence, who is flushing red with embarrassment. "I think we need to go. Adam needs to rest up."

"Fine then," says Allison flatly. "Come on, sweetie." She and Diana both walk out of the room.

"I'll be there in a moment," Lawrence calls after them. He looks at Adam. Adam looks at him.

Then they both start laughing.

They start laughing for no reason. It's hollow, totally hollow with no light behind it.

Adam stops laughing as Lawrence advances towards him, stops laughing as Lawrence holds him down, glides his lips over his, and slides his tongue in Adam's mouth. Adam doesn't move. He lays perfectly still. He feels Lawrence's warm, sweet breath. That's the only thing he needs now. That's what he needs most.

And after Lawrence is done, he says, "Adam, _please think about it."_

And a few seconds later, the room is empty.

Adam's all alone now.

Being alone is the hardest thing in the world.

Adam's going to explode now. His cloud of animosity disperses and a new cloud of melancholy appears and spreads through the room, down the halls, into the hour rooms, outside, and all the way to Adam's apartment. Lawrence has left a mark underneath his skin. A mark that will never go away no matter what.

Months go by.

Nothing has really happened.

Except for that one night.

Adam had been thinking so much about Lawrence before that night. Mostly because Lawrence had called him on the phone and told him sorrowfully, "You're right, Adam. I have a family, so it won't work..." The rest of the conversation Adam had tuned out.

Why did he have to put those stupid fucking words in Lawrence's head?

Why did he have to talk about Allison and Diana?

Why the hell did Allison deserve Lawrence, and not Adam?

This wasn't acceptable, not at all.

So on that one night, Adam drove over to Lawrence's house, having complete disregard for the speed limit. He had just hoped that Allison wouldn't be there. For his sake, for her sake, for Lawrence's sake.

Adam banged on the door as hard as he could, then pursed his lips disdainfully when he saw that Lawrence's car wasn't in the driveway. He was probably out with his family.

That was fine.

It was fine because as soon as Adam got home, he called Lawrence's cell.

"Hello?"

Adam's heart raced as Lawrence picked up the phone. He almost forced himself to hang up, almost forced himself to stop this.

But he didn't.

"Yo, Lawrence," he said smoothly. "Hey, would you do me a favor?"

"Sure."

"I went by your house to ask you, but you weren't home."

"Oh. Allison, Diana and I are out eating."

"All right then. Well, when you're done eating, can you take Allison and Diana home? And then can you come to my apartment and help me with something?"

"Sure. What do you need help with?"

Adam had hoped that he wouldn't ask him that. Now he had to lie. "I need help moving a few boxes of my crap that I never unpacked when I moved in. I'm getting rid of it all."

Moving boxes.

"Okay, I'll be over in about thirty minutes."

Adam had sat on his couch after that.

Allison could have Lawrence, oh yes.

But not that night.

On that night, Lawrence was going to be his.

For one night.

Adam jumped when he heard a knock at his door. His heart leaped as he ran to the door and opened it.

And then his heart dropped.

It was his landlord, demanding that Adam gave him the rent right now.

Aww, shit.

Adam didn't have enough money to support himself, so he snapped at the landlord that he would get the money to him in a few days, and then slammed the door in his face.

Luckily, a few minutes later, there was another knock on the door. Adam reached for the knob as fast as he could. It was Lawrence. Adam grabbed Lawrence by the arm, and shoved him inside.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Lawrence snapped as Adam slammed the door closed behind him.

"Shut the fuck up and sit down!" Adam yelled. He pushed Lawrence onto the couch, advanced at him, and sat on his lap. He leaned in, glided his lips over Lawrence's, and slided his tongue into his mouth, dancing with his easily. Somewhere in between all of the tongue wrestling and the moaning and the stroking, Adam whispers, "You're MINE tonight, Lawrence Gordon."

"Adam--" But Adam didn't let Lawrence protest. He just slid his tongue back in Lawrence's mouth. Lawrence didn't have to love him. But Adam wanted to have him for just once.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

HEHEHEH I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Please R&R!

--No More Sorrowxx


	11. Never Be Good Enough

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_Misguided Ghost_

By No More Sorrowxx

Chapter 11: Never Be Good Enough

EmeraldDragon93: I have a weakness for dominant Adam as well...-blush-

AspenCayde: Why thank you. :D

IAmMadlyInLoveWithJohnnyDepp: I knew you would get some amusement out of Allison's bitchiness. XD Not an Allison fan here, myself, so... Thank you, I tried to make it as good as possible...XD Thank you! I will do more fics of AL, but...I need a prompt because right now, I can't think of anything. XD There might be. Or there might not be, just to torture you guys. XD Just kidding. Of course there will be. :D

Guys, I have a favor to ask of each of you. Whenever you review next, along with the review, could you please maybe give me some ideas for another AL fic? I am braindead right now. I'm lucky I was able to come up with this chapter as it is...XD So if you guys could do that for me, it would be very much appreciated! On another note, this chapter has more Amanda in it than some of you would like. Don't worry. The big "thing" I promised is coming up soon, so I'm sure that all of you really appreciate that. XD Also, if you've been noticing, the little hyphens I've been using for time breaks are getting deleted. So I'm going to try my XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX method this time...-sigh- Fanfiction, you really hate me right now, don't you? Btw, Fanfiction is being a bitch to me italics, so that's why a part of this chapter is randomly italicized.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Not much else has happened.

Adam still hasn't quit being John's apprentice.

Why?

Because he's still afraid. He's still afraid of the darkness of the bathroom. He's also still half on John's side. John's right about a lot of things, but he's also wrong about a few things.

Today Adam's home by himself. He hasn't made much money lately, that's nothing new. His apartment's still a dirty shithole, but of course that hasn't changed either. Adam's always home during the day, during the day when Lawrence is at work. He knows Lawrence would rather be home, rather than taking out someone's appendix. Adam wishes that he could be with Lawrence right now. But here he is, sitting on his couch, nearly dying of boredom.

Adam inhales some of the smoke from his cigarette and exhales slowly. The TV's on right now in front of him, just a blur of colors, all mixing together into stupid laughing tracks and soap operas with the same plots over and over again. It doesn't really matter if Rebecca loves David, and it doesn't really matter if David loves Matt. And it doesn't really matter if Matt loves David secretly. It doesn't matter if Matt and David have to keep their love a secret because the people around them will become angry and see it as wrong.

Adam listens to the soap opera halfheartedly--listens, not watches--and hears Rebecca find out about David's love for Matt. And within a few seconds, Rebecca is screaming close to something fierce. For a second, Adam wonders how Allison will react if she finds out about Adam and Lawrence. Finds out Lawrence has been sleeping with him instead of her. Finds out that Lawrence has moved on.

Suddenly, there's a knock at Adam's door. Adam snuffs his cigarette out in his ashtray on the coffee table and stands up. He walks to the door, taking his sweet time, looks through the peephole, and spots Amanda, standing there with her hands in her pockets. Adam opens the door slowly.

Amanda's hair has gotten much longer, down to her shoulders. She's wearing a red shirt and black pants, and her face is a tad blank. "Hey, Adam," she mutters awkwardly. Their conversations haven't gotten any less awkward since Adam started working with John.

"Yeah?" Adam asks, pursing his lips. It's weird. He didn't know that John might be planning a game today. Well, John does have a cancerous brain tumor, and it had been acting up lately...Maybe something bad happened to him?

"John's starting a game today," Amanda replies as if she's reading Adam's mind. "But...he says he wants you to stay home. He won't tell me why or what for, he just...His tumor's been acting up...Really bad...And a doctor's going to perform surgery on him and save him..." Her voice is shaking.

Seeing Amanda's eyes shrink-wrapped in tears and ready to cry, Adam melts in her hands with sympathy. It's no secret that Amanda loves John. It can't be more obvious than it already is. "Okay..." says Adam softly.

"Thanks Adam," Amanda whispers, embracing him. Adam's eyes widen, and for a moment, for just one moment, Amanda's scent wreathes around him. He'd never really touched her before. He can feel her hair, her long, soft brown hair as she presses against him. Then Amanda pulls away from him and walks away, leaving Adam behind silently.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_I need you. Please come over now._

It is the text that Adam had shot Lawrence only minutes ago. Now that Adam is alone again, the icy pangs of loneliness begin to grip his heart once more. Adam doesn't care if Lawrence is at work. He needs him, and he needs him now. They need each other.

Adam jumps as someone raps on the door. Did Lawrence come from work, or is Adam's landlord at the door again? Adam gets up and looks through the peephole. It's not anyone you can expect to see at Adam's door. It's just Allison.

Adam grips the knob, cold inside of him spreading all the way to his fingertips. For some reason, he knows something bad is happening, but he doesn't know what. He opens the door and stares at the blone, saying, "What do you want, Allison?"

Allison glares at him. "I just need to talk to you, okay, Adam? Believe me when I say I wouldn't be coming here if this wasn't important."

"Whatever you have to say, say it right here. To my face. Right now." For some reason, the fact that Lawrence has been sleeping with Adam and the need for arrogance pushes at the back of Adam's mind.

"Say something to me about this," Allison growls, reaching in her jeans pocket and pulling out a small silver object. This is Lawrence's phone.

Adam's heart races. He begins to sweat. He already knows what has happened even before Allison explains. Allison opens the phone and closes it while she says quietly, "Larry left his cell phone home and forgot it, and I just happened to hear the text tone. And I read the text. And I saw this." She whispers very condescendingly, "'_I need you. Please come over now.' _And let's not forget the ever-popular _'I'm going to explode if I don't see you right now. Please stay with me.' _I always knew you were a dirty little rotter, Adam, but this is very low. My husband is cheating on me for _you._"

Allison's own blood red cloud of animosity radiates from her body, choking and strangling Adam's cloud, transforming it into anxiety. For a few seconds, Adam cannot find any words. It's as if Allison's cloud of animosity choked the words out of him. But the words leak their way back into his mind, and he says, "So? Lawrence doesn't seem to mind. At least he can talk to me."

Allison flinches and scowls. "He can talk to me! He SHOULD talk to me, instead of some angry photographer with an apartment that smells like the rear end of a truck! Lawrence MARRIED me! He loves me more!"

"Loved."

"Shut up, Adam Faulkner. Give Larry back to me! You don't deserve him!"

"You don't deserve him. You don't trust him. You don't listen to him. You just worry about your own perfect little life, and if one piece of it falls out of place, your whole fucking world is shattered."

Allison blinks coldly. "You'll never understand love because you've never been loved."

Which we all know isn't true.

"Shut the fuck up," Adam snaps quietly.

"Lawrence told me how your parents kicked you out. You've always needed someone to cling to because you're so fucking pathetic. You will never be strong enough and you will never be good enough. What about my daughter? How is she going to be affected if you take Lawrence from me?"

"I...I'm sick of listening to you." Adam turns around and walks into his apartment, but that doesn't stop Allison from reaching into her pocket and pulling out something else.

She hides it behind her back and whispers, "I worked so hard to get Lawrence to love me. You WON'T steal him away from me. Say you'll leave him alone."

Adam blinks. "No."

"Fine, then." Allison dashes to Adam, screaming and punching him in the face. She twists his arm behind his back, and he cries out in pain. She then takes the item and holds it to his neck. A knife.

"I w-worked so hard for him," she repeats. "You can't even imagine the sacrifices I gave up to win his love, Adam...You're going to give him back to me. Let this be a warning to you. Keep in mind that by reading Lawrence's phone, I also found out your secret. I'll expose you if you don't give him back to me."

"Lawrence isn't a prize to be won, you fucking whore!" Adam spits ferociously, struggling and pulling different directions, but Allison has a firm grip on his arm. She takes the knife and digs it deep into his side. His eyes widening in agony and shock, Adam gasps out of panic, like he's been running miles and miles.

"Remember my words!" Allison hisses venomously in his ear before slashing the knife across his side once more. She throws him to the floor and holds her head in her hands, seeming to be ashamed of what she just did. "I j-j-just got my husband back. D-don't you think I deserve him?" Then, the blonde walks off, leaving Adam holding his side with his hand.

Adam takes his hand off for a moment and looks at the blood running from him, staining his clothes and his carpet with crimson regret. He's still gasping, his eyes are still fluttering, and he's trying to stop the blood. That bitch Allison can't possibly make him choose between his secret and Lawrence.

_I guess this is all my fault...What was I thinking, messing with a married man? Now that stupid bitch is making me choose between love and my own life. _Adam crawls to his couch and desperately reaches for the blanket folded on it. He grabs it and holds it to his side, feeling like that would be a better tourniquet than his hands. He calms himself down and is able to make his gasping die down in his aching lungs. He then reaches in his pocket and pulls out his phone.

Adam calls Lawrence's work number instead of 9-1-1 obviously. "Lawrence Gordon," Lawrence answers. Oh, how happy Adam is to hear his voice.

He figures out quickly that he hadn't stopped his gasping quite as good as he thought he did. "L-L-L-Lawrence, A-Allison came here...She kn-knows a-about us...She r-read your t-text m-m-messages...A-Allison st-stabbed me..."

Adam hears Lawrence gasp and take a long pause before answering. "D-Did you call 9-1-1?" Lawrence stutters, probably about now realizing the impact that this has on all of them.

"No..."

"Adam, what the hell! You need you call them now!"

"I w-wanted to see _you..._"

"Adam, you're crazy...You need medical attention...I'll call them for you, and they'll get you here shortly, okay?"

"No, I-I-I'm not g-going back to th-that st-stupid p-place...I h-hate h-hospitals, and y-you know it... I want _you _to come....Y-you're a d-doctor and y-you know wh-what to do."

"Don't sacrifice yourself, Adam. I'll...I...I'll be right there, okay? Just keep pressure on the wound, and avoid taking it off at all costs..."

Adam swallows the mix of terror, loneliness, and regret in his throat. "O-okay, thank y-you...S-see you s-soon..." And then he avoids saying the three words he so desperately wants to say to Lawrence. Because he knows what will have to happen. Then, he hangs up.

His side is burning fire, but he still presses the blanket against his side firmly, determined to stop the blood. _Don't sacrifice yourself, Adam. _Lawrence could not have chosen any worse words if he knew what else Allison had said to him. If Adam chooses Lawrence, he really _will _be sacrificing himself. He'll be in prison for the rest of his life... But if he gives up Lawrence...Which would be harder to do?

_Lawrence is the only thing keeping me from smoking three packs a day. He understands me, loves me, listens to me when I'm depressed...He knows me better than anyone I've ever met. And I love him back..._

But if I don't give him up...I'm going to rot in prison. It'll be like being in the bathroom all over again.

Why can't I just die right now?

God, why can't you just kill me?

You hate me, don't you?

Sure, you love Lawrence. You love him. You gave him a perfect life, a perfect wife, a perfect daughter, a perfect house. He doesn't have to worry about a drug addiction.

But you just regret creating me, don't you? You gave me all this crap to work with, and what the fuck am I supposed to do now? You've given me a death sentence.

Luckily, Adam's door is unlocked, so Lawrence opens it, and it slams against the wall. He gasps loudly when he sees Adam sprawled on the floor with a crimson-soaked blanket against his side. He puts on hand under Adam and helps him sit up. "She did _this?" _Lawrence murmurs. Adam nods, his throat closing. "That's not like Ally..."

"Yes, but I a-am the o-only exception, I s-suppose..." Adam whispers.

Lawrence takes Adam's shirt off and sits it on the floor beside him. Then he examines where Allison slashed him, and seeing that only one of the cuts is deep, he breathes a sigh of relief. "What?" Adam asks.

"Only one cut is deep, so you should be okay," Lawrence answers softly. Then he pulls out some bandages he had stuffed in his pocket and puts them over Adam's cuts carefully. "You stopped the bleeding for the most part, and with those bandages on, it should stop completely."

Feeling light-headed, Adam only answers, "Uh-huh."

"You had me scared," Lawrence says, smiling. "Quit scaring me like that. You're going to be the death of me with me worrying about you, Adam."

"If you only knew who was going to be the death of who..." Adam says back quietly.

Lawrence arches an eyebrow. "Hmm?"

"Ally's going to expose me. She's g-going to tell the whole world I'm working with John. She read a t-text I sent you....There's only one way I can stop that from happening."

Lawrence's eyes widen. "What's that?"

"We can't see each other anymore." The words come out of Adam's mouth so slowly that he can't even feel himself saying them.

"She said that?"

"Yes." Suddenly, Adam feels like someone has taken a stake and shoved it through his heart. Only, that would be a lot less painful for him then what he's saying right now. "I-I can't stop seeing you...But it will be like being in the bathroom all over again."

Lawrence stares at him. He then averts his eyes and looks down. "You shouldn't have to make that choice..." he growls, whirling around and walking out the front door.

"What--where are you going!" Adam calls desperately. "Please, don't leave!"

Lawrence doesn't answer, so Adam pounds the floor with his fists furiously. _"Fuck!" _he screams. And now, he's all alone. So now...Adam curls up where he his with his knees to his chest like he did when he was a child. Then, he sobs.

Sobs because he's losing his mind.

Sobs because he's going to lose everything.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Sorry guys, but I've been WAY to busy with school to update, not to mention that I had writer's block...A friend of mine co-wrote this chapter with me. I mean, I wrote most of it, but I still had help. :'D I know Allison is a little OOC, but when you're in love...you become desperate.

Please R&R!

--No More Sorrowxx


	12. Feels So Much Like Falling

_**Misguided Ghost**_

_**By No More Sorrowxx**_

_**Chapter 12: Much Like Falling**_

IAmMadlyInLoveWithJohnnyDepp: Aww, you thought the chapter was horrible? XD Crap, we spent a lot of time working on that one. Well, I supposed not every chapter can be good. Yes, Allison is going a bit...psycho...Ahem.

NinjaShallow: Squee, thanks for reviewing.

EmeraldDragon93: Thanks a lot! :D

: Yes, we all knew Allison was a bit...testy. XD

Okay, from the sound of this chapter, you can probably assume that this fic is coming to a conclusion. XD

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_"No…"_

"Please…"

"Please…don't leave me here!"

The ghosts are there, staring at Adam. He can now identify the ghosts, every mark, every hairstyle…They stand at the other side of the bathroom, staring at him coldly. Adam's chain of regret and despair keep him from going any farther.

_"Please help me!" _he screams at the top of his lungs. He pulls on the chain, his side flaring like the brightest flames. But the ghosts, his mom, his dad, Allison, Diana, Amanda, Hoffman, John, Lawrence… They don't do anything. They have absolutely no intention of doing anything.

These are the ghosts who could not help him the first time. _"PLEASE!" _Adam screams again.

The lights flicker off, and the door is closed once more on him. But that's not even the worst part. He can see something in the room. Well, maybe it's not in the room. Maybe it's in the back of Adam's mind. He can see Lawrence, Lawrence holding Allison in his arms. With Allison smiling big as her husband kisses her on the cheek.

The sad truth is there.

The sad truth is right in front of Adam, staring him in the face like the devil himself.

_"Lawrence.." _he moans, making fists. "_Lawrence, please…"_

Adam sits up in his bed, gasping. He runs his hands through his sweaty dark hair, anger making his eyes burn. Then, he flinches as his side sears in pain. _God damn it. _Adam puts one hand on his wounded side. Great. The deepest wound has opened again, and there's Adam's blood all over the sheets. Not that Adam cares if it stains the sheets.

They're just sheets. And like Adam, the sheets cannot be cleaned up or fixed.

Adam gets up, limps to the bathroom, and grabs the brown bottle of peroxide from out of his medicine cabinet. He uses a cotton ball to rub in on the open cut, puts a new bandage on it, and sits on the sink counter, hanging his head. He fidgets with his fingers, thoughts racing through his mind. It's only then that he notices his phone vibrating from text messages in his pocket. He ignores them for now, gets off of the counter, walks to his kitchen for a smoke.

The pack is on the counter as always, with its lovely friend the lighter beside it. Adam lights his cigarette like usual, inhaling the smoke, inhaling the calming drug that tells him everything's going to be okay. But the sad truth is still there in the back of his mind.

The dream has told him everything. The impact each decision will have on him. He hasn't seen Lawrence since earlier, which worries him more than ever. So Adam opens his phone again to check the text messages, and ignores all of them since they aren't from Lawrence. He then sends Lawrence a quick message.

_I need you to talk to me. Please. I love you too damn much for you to just ignore me like this. I know how selfish I am right now. I don't want to be selfish anymore. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don't care if Allison exposes me anymore. I'll find a way to be with you. I have to. I'd rather die than be without you._

But Lawrence doesn't reply. Not within the next thirty minutes. Adam's left smoking cigarette after cigarette until he runs out, his eyes staring forward at absolutely nothing but the wall. Then…he prays.

_God, I know what you put me here for now. You put me here to be with Lawrence. You made John put us into that room together so we would fall in love. You wanted it to happen. Don't take it away from me now. If you wanted me to just go through life the way I am right now, why should I keep waking up? Dying a slow death while I wait to die. I know I don't pray much. Hell, I'll be damned if I ever remember to pray again at all. But now you can see that I really…really need your help. Please, please let me have Lawrence. Please. That's all I ask, and that's all I want. Without him…it feels so much like falling. Please._

And…give Allison someone else who will treat her as well as Lawrence does. She and Diana deserve it. Adam's feeling very rotten, his breath smelling like smoke as he talks to God. But I suppose that's the Adam Way. Doing drugs and talking to God at the same time. You can tell he feels especially rotten if he wants Allison to be happy too.

_God, I don't know if I deserve Lawrence after all the shit I've done, but I do know that you created me for a reason, and this has to be it. Not taking fucking pictures of strangers. Not being some gay wedding photographer…Just this. Don't take it from me. Do you see me right now? Do you see these cigarettes? If Lawrence was here, these would still be in an unopened pack on the counter. Do you see?_

And that's about as deep as an Adam prayer gets. And probably because he'll forget to pray in the future, that's as deep as it's ever going to get. Adam throws his last dimmed cigarette into the trash can after making sure it's completely out. And as if God hears him, Adam's phone vibrates. Quickly, he takes it out of his pocket and looks at the caller ID.

_Lawrence Gordon._

Adam answers the phone, quickly yelling a, "Hello!"

His heart drops as he hears the voice. She's a bitch, that Allison, and she still has Lawrence's God damned phone. "Why are you still texting him if you know I have his phone?" she hisses through what Adam thinks are gritted teeth. "You just don't give up, do you? I thought I made it clear by staining your carpet with your blood that Lawrence is mine. Quit texting him."

"You sound more like his mother than his wife," Adam retorts, running an impatient hand through his hair. Allison is the one who just doesn't give up. Is it really Lawrence she wants, or is it her pride getting in the way?

Allison sneers back, "Does his mom fuck him like you and I do?

Adam rolls his eyes, biting back an even dirtier response. When it comes to dirty insults, Allison is obviously a fucking _novice _compared to Adam. Adam growls, "Whatever. Can't we just talk?"

"No, we can't. Give me your answer. I don't want to wait any longer. Are you going to stay away from Lawrence, or are you going to rot in prison for the rest of your life?" Allison's tone is expecting, as if she knows already that Adam's response is going to be a stupid one.

"You honestly want to know my answer?" Adam scoffs. He knows now the answer. _Maybe for once the fact that I'm selfish can be a good thing. _"The answer is that nothing you can say or do is going to get me to stay away from your _ex. _You can't threaten me enough, you can't mutilate me enough. The truth is, you should just move on. We all knew he was going to cheat on you for someone else later anyways." Oh, how _sweet _these words feel going off of Adam's mouth! "So go ahead. Turn me in. But God's on _my _side this time."

You know those awkward silences you have over the phone, even with your very best friends? Well (even though we all know that Allison and Adam aren't best friends) this was one of those very awkward silences, where you never can figure out what you're going to say next, nor can you figure out what the other person is going to say next.

Adam wonders what he's going to do now. Wonders if Allison is really going to tell the whole world he's working with Jigsaw. And then, he sneers, "_Do whatever the fuck you want. _You're taking who I love and you stabbed me in the side. _Piss off." _And he almost hangs up. He almost hangs up on Allison. Almost hangs up on the woman who stabbed his side, threatened to expose him, competed against him for Lawrence.

But before he does, Allison says, "Wait a second."

_Ah fuck, I wanted to do the whole dramatic hang up, piss off routine. "What?" _Adam almost spits.

"Fine," Allison murmurs. "You win."

_Huh?_

Adam's mouth echoes his thoughts. "Huh?"

"You're choosing a life in prison over giving up Lawrence. Obviously…" Allison's voice cracks and shakes despairingly. "Obviously, you have such a bond with him that I will never have…You love him too much. I…would be too unkind to rip that apart." She laughs hollowly. "You're right. Lawrence never talks to me, but he seems to be able to spill everything to you. And he probably enjoys fucking you more than his own wife."

_I'm sure a lot of people—_He doesn't get into that. "Are you sure?" Adam mutters. _Shit, don't ask her that, you idiot!_

"Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, what's the point of having Lawrence as a husband if he won't even talk to me? I'll…send him over there."

Adam smiles, for once feeling gratitude toward the hateful woman. "Th…thank you Allison. I don't know what to say…"

"Don't thank me. Just know your secret's safe." And then she hangs up, just like that.

Just that simple answer was enough for Allison to leave Lawrence and Adam alone. And now, everything's going to be okay. Lawrence is going to come over, and Adam's going to hold him in his arms and everything's going to be just about perfect again.

Adam hears a knock at his door, and smirks as he opens it.

There he is.

Lawrence.

Adam wraps his arms around the taller man, smiling huge. Lawrence returns the hug and grins back. "Everything's going to change for you now, Adam," Lawrence murmurs, messing with Adam's hair. "Everything's going to be better. I'm here for you, we've got each other, and we're going to live the rest of our lives together." He kisses Adam's forehead.

Their bodies fit together perfectly, indeed like a jigsaw piece. Adam blinks as he notices light shining in the room from his balcony window, turning the sky bright pink with a mix of whitish yellow in the wake of dawn. "I love you Adam," Lawrence says softly.

"I love you Lawrence," Adam whispers, his heart flooding with warmth. It seems that no dawn has ever been brighter.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I wish I could tell you that that's how it's going to be forever. I wish I could say that Lawrence and Adam live peacefully. But I can't, and the sooner you learn that, the better it will be for every single one of us reading this story. There's no way a story can just end right there, because for every story, there is _always something else. There's always something left, always something that a lot of people miss._

Because no people in horror movies live happily ever after.

And you can tell that very easily.

Starting with a text message from Hoffman a few minutes after dawn.

_Amanda is dead._

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

BWAHAHA I used a cliffie! The story is indeed almost over, but…not quite. For you see, there is other stuff that Adam needs to find out about.

Please R&R!

No More Sorrowwxx


	13. What We Build

_**Misguided Ghost  
By No More Sorrowxx  
Chapter 13: What We Build**_

Well, this is officially the last chapter of Misguided Ghost. I don't know if I want to make a sequel because  
I've got so many other fics I want to work on, but we'll see what happens before I decided that for sure. And,  
the way it ends, I don't think I can make a sequel to top it. We'll just see! :D Also, my Word isn't letting me in it, so I'm using WordPad (betch) and I don't know how many words I'm typing, only cuz it doesn't have a word count. So I'll try to type as many as my brain can think of and still make it a last chapter that makes sense. Oh, and I think you guys are going to enjoy Adam in this chapter...:D As always.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Doesn't it truly suck when someone sends you a text message about someone _dying, _for Christ's sake? Adam stares at the phone for a few long moments, and Lawrence stares at him, saying, "What's wrong, what's wrong, what's wrong?" over and over again, but Adam doesn't hear him. And for the first time, Adam doesn't even _want _to hear him. He doesn't want to hear a voice feeling sorry for him. He doesn't want the awful words to sputter from his mouth.

Doesn't want to say shit.

Lawrence, alarmed, takes the phone from Adam and stares at the tiny message on his phone. Adam stares straight ahead. He knows Lawrence has his phone know, but he doesn't fucking care. His hands are still in the same fist he'd made when he'd had his phone in them, and you can slide that phone back in them easily like a puzzle piece. It'd be too easy with all of the sweat in his palms.

"Wh-what do you think happened, Adam?" Adam hears Lawrence ask.

Adam barely hears him. The only thing he's thinking about is...

The way Amanda had smelled when she'd hugged him, like roses, roses with bitter thorns that poked through your skin and had you pull your hand away so fast. Roses with bitter thorns that scratched the surface of your skin. Roses that are so beautiful and delicate that you have to pluck them from their spot, you have to hold them in your hands, but if you do, you will bleed. Your hands will be warm with blood, and the sweet fragrance will fade away into the background.

Adam remembers how distressed she was when she'd come to tell him about the new game. How she'd nearly cried, her eyes shrink-wrapped in heavy, dark, mascara tears. She'd hugged him. And...

"Adam, Adam!" Adam sinks out of his memory as Lawrence shakes his shoulder, like someone coming up from the surface of a pool of water. Adam's grayish green eyes look at Lawrence's blue, and he stares. "Adam, are you...are you going to be okay?" Lawrence asks quietly.

Adam's eyes narrow, anger darkening his vision. He wants to grab something by the throat, clasp his hands around it, squeeze all of the life out of it. Because he knows that will make it better, he knows that it will help him through this. Yes, the rage will just slip away. Adam can still feel that scar on his chest where Amanda had cut him so long ago.

Then he understands.

Why she'd done that to him.

_Do you value your life, Adam?_

Of course, she hadn't done it out of hatred. Far from it. John had said all that time ago that if Adam didn't value his life enough to work for him, he would send him straight back to the bathroom.

She'd done it...

She'd done it to scare Adam into being John's apprentice to the full extent, to _force _him to value his life. She had probably never intended to kill him. She had been trying to save him.

_"Adam!" _Lawrence says, almost snapping it. Adam has yet again been caught lost in thought. Lawrence shakes his shoulders again. "Would you talk to me? Please, please talk to me. What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking...about..."Adam's voice is almost inaudible, and he can tell Lawrence is straining to hear it.

Vibration.

Adam grabs his phone from Lawrence and looks at the new message.

_Adam, would you fucking respond already? John and Amanda are both dead! Their bodies have both been taken to the morgue. And I'm at the hospital. If Pamela Jenkins or Jill Tuck come by, tell them to get lost. They have nothing to do with you. The police know that John and Amanda were part of the pack, but they don't know about us. Since John is dead, I think we can both agree that I'm going to control all aspects of the game now. Agreed?_

Pamela Jenkins...has to be one of the most annoying people in the world. She is a reporter who specializes in learning all the facts about Jigsaw.

And Jill Tuck...is John's ex-wife. When she had miscarriaged, John had tried to take his life and then found out that he needed to appreciate it. Sometimes Adam thinks that if it weren't for Jill...This would all be different. Adam texts Hoffman back.

_Sorry, Mark, but I'm just getting over the fucked up shock that Amanda and John are dead. You're such an impatient asswipe. Why the hell would Jill or Pamela come by? Does Pamela know that I'm involved with you or something?_

Hoffman's next text:

_Well, this is important, so man up. Yes, Pamela knows about you because I told her I knew a survivor of the Jigsaw case. And she asked me who you were, and I told her. She might be coming to get a story, so tell her nothing. Nothing at all. And Jill of course knows that your one of John's apprentices. If she asks, I'm controlling the games now. Got it?_

Adam's next text:

_That's not what John wanted, Mark. I'm his apprentice, too. And Jill is John's ex-wife. I think I owe it to her to tell her some things. And why the fuck would you tell a God damned reporter named Pamela fucking Jenkins about me and where I live?_

Hoffman's next text:

_Wait, you said you would tell her some things. What do you know about?_

Adam's eyes widen as he answers.

_What are you talking about? Do you know something I don't, Mark?_

Hoffman doesn't answer.

Then someone knocks on the door.

"Who's that?" Lawrence asks. "Were you expecting someone?"

Adam glances back at Lawrence as he walks to the door. "No, and don't you think it would be a little odd for someone to knock at my door at six in the morning?" Adam replies, unlocking the door. But he's never memorized which lock goes horizontal and which goes vertical, so he spends a good thirty seconds messing with them and trying to figure out. And when he finally opens the door...

It's nosy-as-hell, blonde, Pamela Jenkins, with eyes staring at Adam behind cheap glasses. She's holding a folded up note in her left hand. "Hello, you're Adam Faulkner, right?" she demands.

"Who's that?" Adam hears Lawrence shout from the living room.

"Pamela Jenkins," Adam yells over his shoulder, and then looks back at Pamela. "Go away. I'm not answering any questions about Jigsaw. I was locked in a bathroom for what seemed to be forever. I woke up smelling like shit. It felt like someone had eaten the inside of my stomach and like someone had put a fucking gun to my head. Need I say more?" Adam attempts to close the door, slam it in Pamela's face, but Pamela holds it open with her hand. The sad thing is that no matter how hard Adam pushes, he's still weaker than Pamela.

"Wait, I have something that might be useful to you and Jill Tuck," Pamela says. "Mark Hoffman said that you're John Kramer's nephew. Right?"

For all tense and purposes, just to see what she wants, Adam nods. "Yeah. So?"

"I found this at the location where he was murdered," Pamela replies, handing him the note. Adam takes it from her, unfolding it, a knot developing in his stomach even before he does. "Is it of any use to you, Adam?"

_Amanda, you were with Cecil the night John lost Gideon. You killed his child. You know it and I know it, so do exactly as I say. Kill Lynn Denlon, or I will tell John what you did._

Adam catches the breath in his throat. Cecil had supposedly been the man who had slammed a door on Jill Tuck's pregnant belly...But had Amanda been really been the cause of it all along? "Wait, how exactly did Amanda Young die?" Adam whispers.

"She was shot in the neck, and she quickly bled to death. Apparently, John Kramer set it up to where Amanda would shoot Lynn Denlon, and since Jeff Reinhart was her ex-husband...Revenge took over and he shot Amanda."

"The person who wrote this note told her to kill Lynn or he would tell John. This person knew it was going to happen." Adam's voice shakes as he realizes it.

Who else had probably known about the effects of this game?

Not Adam.

And Amanda certainly hadn't known that John was setting her up.

So who else?

Jill Tuck? But she wanted no part of that.

So who did that narrow it down to?

Rage shakes Adam's body as he understands, as he finds out who it has to be. "Thank you," he growls, closing the door in Pamela's face.

"What's that?" Lawrence asks as Adam storms into the living room, his eyes wide. Adam can't tell him. He just wants to fire a pistol in the air now.

"I know why Amanda died," he hisses, all of the hate pouring out of his mouth like venom. He slams the note down on the coffee table, and his words come out of his mouth so easy. "It was a test-a fucking test! Amanda had been...making traps impossible, making them impossible to escape. So...so to test her will to keep someone alive, John had made Lynn Denlon part of the game! And Hoffman...Mark Hoffman knew about this game, this fucking secret, this fucking secret Amanda didn't know shit about! He wrote her this note because he knew about what she did! He knew that if Amanda killed Lynn, Jeff would kill _her! _Mark fucking _set her up! _Mark killed her!" He glances at the door and grabs his jacket off of the couch where it had been strewn. "I'm going to talk to Mark. I'm going to see if that spineless motherfucker will admit to what he's done."

Lawrence grabs Adam's arm, not hard, but strong enough to keep him from going any further. Which isn't actually strong at all. "Adam, wait, wait, listen to me!" he gasps as Adam tries to jerk away.

"Let me _go!" _Adam screeches, jerking hard to the side, but he's too small, too weak to get out of Lawrence's grasp. He puts his hand on Lawrence's, trying to pry his fingers off, but for every finger he pries off, another one takes its place.

"Listen, Adam! You're way too angry! You're going to do something you'll regret!" Lawrence's eyes are pleading pools of blue. "You don't even know for sure if Mark killed her! What if you're wrong!"

"It all fits together!" Adam snaps, pulling forward, his arm nearly ripping out of its socket. "It makes _perfect _sense, doesn't it! Just let me go, Lawrence!"

"If Mark _did _kill Amanda, then he might be trying to get rid of you, too! Plus, he's a cop! He could have guns and could be armed! He could easily kill you! I just got you back, and I'm not about to let that happen!"

"I could threaten him. I know our secret, I could easily expose him!"

"Adam, do you even realize how _stupid _that would be? You've just been threatened to be exposed, and now you _want _to be exposed?"

Adam looks to the floor, stopping the jerking. "Then what the fuck do I do, Lawrence? I have to know, I..."

"Then at least let me come with you, Adam," Lawrence begs, his frown making Adam melt like putty in his hands. He's making his puppy dog face that always gets Adam to do _whatever _he wants. (Wink wink.)

He stares at Lawrence for a very long moment, pursing his lips. "...I guess," he mumbles, scratching the back of his head. "But...if he decides to pull a gun on me, you have to run." Without waiting for an answer, he puts his jacket on and walks to the door.

"Adam, you get angry way too easily," Lawrence teases, following him. He slides his hand into Adam's, and Adam glances at him while opening the door. "I always like to have the chance to calm you down." He kisses Adam on the neck, watching Adam smile.

Adam's body immediately fills with warmth. "I'm glad you're worried about me," he says, blushing. "As long as you're with me, I'll stay alive forever. No matter how much agony I'm in, if I'm with you, I will not die. I will survive." He remembers the longest time he was away from Lawrence, that long time he'd spent in darkness in the bathroom without him. When the only company he'd had were the ghosts.

The familiar strangers.

"Heh, I'm glad," Lawrence murmurs. "I believe in you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Adam knocks on the door, the door of Hoffman's shitty suburban house. He knocks so hard that it hurts his fist, knocks so hard because he can feel the anger bubbling up inside of him again, and he tries to place a lid over it, squeeze it down to where it will suffocate to death. But it just keeps rising and rising up.

Hoffman answers the door, but the little chain is still hooked to its lock. "What, Adam?" he growls.

"So, why didn't you respond to my text?" Adam snaps, narrowing his eyes in an accusing gaze. "I think this tells why, Mark." He pulls the note out of his pocket, unfolds it, and throws it at Hoffman. Hoffman picks it up and stares at it for a few long moments.

"What are you saying?" he dares to say back.

_Fuck you, fuck you, FUCK YOU! _Adam almost bellows it out, but he forces it to stay down. "This is your handwriting, and you had to be the only other one who knew about Amanda's test."

"You know about it."

"Only because Pamela Jenkins told me about it!"

Hoffman stiffens. "I thought I told you not to talk to her."

"Last time I checked, you weren't my fucking mom!"

"Easy, Adam," Lawrence breathes from behind him.

"Why'd you bring your boyfriend with you, Adam?" Hoffman sneers.

"Would you stop trying to change the subject!" Adam almost tears through the door. "You wrote this letter! You're responsible for Amanda's death, Mark! You did this!" It's only at this time that he sees Hoffman's hand slide something out of his pocket. But he doesn't mention it quite yet. "What the hell are you thinking! We're all Jigsaw's apprentices! I thought we were in this together."

Hoffman takes the chain out of its lock and opens the door all the way. "And what are you going to do about it, Adam Faulkner? Are you going to kill me?"

"I've thought about it!"

"But what are you going to do when..." Hoffman shows Adam what he'd been hiding. "When the police hear this?" It is a phone, and when Hoffman presses a button, and audio recording of Adam plays.

_"What the hell are you thinking? We're all Jigsaw's apprentices! I thought we were in this together!"_

"You wouldn't _dare _send that."

"Try me." Hoffman presses another button, which sends the audio message to every police officer he knows.

"You _fucked up son of a bitch!" _Adam tackles Hoffman, punching in his cheek as hard as he can, which is not very hard. "Do you even realize what you've done! You're going to get us both sent to jail!"

"Adam!" Lawrence yells, grabbing his upheld fist. "That's not the answer!"

It sinks in so quickly, and Adam's mouth gapes open in sheer horror. "Am I going to jail?" he whispers, his lip trembling. _"I'm going to jail! _I don''t want to go to jail! I don't want to go, I don't want to go, I don't want to go!" He sounds like a little kid who's being dragged to the doctor against his will, a little kid who has to leave the playplace of McDonalds. "He sent that to everyone he knows! They know we're Jigsaw apprentices! They know we're responsible for the deaths of so many people!"

Hoffman pushes Adam off of him so quickly, and decks him in the face so hard that it feels like its being stripped off of his muscle. Adam bites his lip so hard it bleeds, it bleeds, and the blood runs into his mouth. He holds his cheek, his warm and throbbing cheek. He spits out his lip blood and gasps.

Then it happens.

A hand clutches Adam's neck, squeezing it so hard that Adam's eyes nearly pop out of his head. Sweat springs up on his forehead. His face gets red, his face gets so unbelievably hot. Adam digs his nails into the hand, willing it to let go, to let him gasp the air he so desperately needs.

Where's Lawrence? The door has been closed, slammed in his face, locked. Adam tries to scream his name, but it only comes out in panicked breaths, which aren't even breaths anymore. He digs his nails in even further, and for a moment he can even hear a scream that isn't is. But he knows its futile. He'll never get the hands off of his throat now. They're tight, so unforgiving.

Because Adam can't save anybody, not as an apprentice, not as a lover. He can't even save himself.

Because Adam's been alone all this time. No one's ever loved him until it was way too late, way too fucking late.

Because his lungs hurt from smoking and getting no air. Because he's rotting from the inside out.

Because all of it was for nothing.

Adam's not strong enough to pry the hand off of his neck, not strong enough to draw any air. He sees spots, his brain simplifying from lack of oxygen. His life is going through his head.

Some stupid little boy growing up in a suburban neighborhood, holding his mommy's hand, terrified of the neighbors' dog. Some stupid little boy finding a note on his dresser, knowing that his daddy would never be coming home again.

Some teenager moving with his mother to the city. Some stupid teenager shoplifting, watching his mother pay for the item with the most tasteless, empty gaze ever invented. Some stupid teenager with his friends, laughing madly and smoking pot.

Some stupid teenager growing up to what seems to be an adult, but is really just some little kid. Some stupid kid-adult taking pictures of a blonde man. Some stupid kid-adult being trapped in an industrial shithole, being shot in the shoulder. Some stupid kid-adult falling in love.

Adam's head leans back as he tries one last time to draw in air, but he it just doesn't work for him, just won't ever work for him. His eyes start to slide shut and he gives in, accepting the fact that he's not strong enough to pry Hoffman's hands off of his throat. He's not meant to be strong enough, anyways. He was always the one bird who was going to fall on its way out of the nest.

He pales, all the color leaving his face. His eyes close, and all he can see is the darkness again, all he can see is those ghosts roaming around in the fading realms of his mind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Someone's pressing on Adam tightly, breathing into his throat. Their lips break away from his and screech, "Breathe, damn it! Breathe!"

Breaths slide through the throat, and that someone says, "Good, just keep breathing. You're going to be fine." Arms hug him tight. Adam's lungs feel too heavy to sit in his body as someone tips a glass of water to his mouth. His eyes are still closed, but he knows what it is. He sips up the water, purifying his soar, aching throat.

His entire private life has just been made public. He can hear someone banging on the door, someone yelling at the top of their lungs, "I know you're here, Mark! Why don't you and Adam Faulkner come out like the true, bold Jigsaw Killers you are!"

Adam's sure he can hear Amanda's voice, whispering in his ear, _"You don't have to stay awake, Adam. Hoffman's gone. Lawrence got rid of him."_

"Gone...?" Adam chokes hoarsely. He swears he can feel an angel Amanda kissing his cheek.

_"Yes, Larry is right beside you. You're going to be okay. Everything's going to be fine now. You just have to get away from the police, and you'll be in a sanctuary. You can't ever come here again. You have to leave. Please, find the strength. Then you can rest. You can sleep forever after that if you want to."_

"Sleep forever..." Adam echoes so softly, so quiet. He wants to melt into the strong arms around him, never open his eyes, slip away. Slip away into nothingness. Because when you're in nothingness, you don't have to struggle to exist. You don't have to wake up. You don't have to think. You don't have to worry about anything. You don't have to be.

"No, Adam, Adam, don't!" Lawrence's voice cuts through the darkness, and Adam's eyes pop open, his shallow breath coming out faster in shock. God, if only he can get more words through his mouth...

Lawrence is crying. The tears had dripped off his face and onto Adam's thin gray shirt, making dark spots. He's squeezing Adam's hand so hard that Adam almost has to pull it away to regain blood circulation. The police are almost knocking the door down now. "Gotta...gotta...get away," rasps Adam, trying to blink away the fatigue. Lawrence nods while he tries to speak a full sentence. Nods like a man who accepting all the hateful things his wife is saying to him while going through labor. "Can't...go to jail."

"Okay, okay, okay, Adam..." Lawrence sobs back, hugging him. Adam's body is as limp as a doll. And he doesn't want to move it. He wants to stay where he is for the rest of eternity, but he cannot. It's only then that he notices Hoffman further across the living room in a pull of blood, a huge shard of glass stuck through his throat, his eyes open and glazed. He glances at the devastated wasteland of a window. Lawrence had come through the window to save him. That's clarified when he sees the broken glass sticking out of Lawrence's left arm. "But...they've surrounded the house..."

"Together, then..." Adam mumbles, his eyes clouding up with tears, accepting the fact that there was no stopping it now. He's never expected to feel this guilty and broken down inside. "We'll..." He's too exhausted to say it. It won't come out.

"...Go to jail together?" Lawrence finishes for him, and a grateful glimmer passes through Adam's eyes. "Okay, Adam, we'll go together. I won't let you go alone." He picks up Adam with his strong arms and uses one hand to open the front door.

The red and blue police sirens nearly make Adam's watering eyes go blind, so bright. And while Lawrence stands there holding him, an officer says through a megaphone, "Get down on the ground!"

"He nearly choked to death-I need to help him!" Lawrence retorts, and Adam's feeling his arms stiffening. The officers exchange glances. Then, one comes up the concrete steps to examine Adam.

"We'll get him medical attention, then we'll book him in prison," he says. "An accessory to one of the world's most notorious serial killers." Adam doesn't have the strength to glare at him, and why should he anyways? That damned text was the end, anyways. There's no point in glaring, no point in showing scorn now. Because it's over.

"If he goes, then I do too," Lawrence snaps. "I knew about this, and I never told anyone. I'm an accomplice, and I murdered Mark Hoffman." He says it so fast, and Adam's surprised that he would give up his perfect doctor life to live with him in prison. Shit, I don't think a lot of people would do that for someone they love.

"Very well, sir," the officer says. "Bring him down." He turns around and walks the superior officer walk down the concrete steps, saying other things to the other officers that Adam can't hear, but he doesn't want to hear them anyways.

"Okay," Lawrence replies, nodding, looking down at a motionless Adam. "How are you feeling, Adam?"

"We're...going back...to..." Adam says it so quiet, so quiet that he knows Lawrence doesn't know what he said at first.

"Do you mean the bathroom?" Lawrence asks, kissing Adam on the forehead.

"Yeah..." Adam's head leans back again. Because that's the way it feels. It's the bathroom all over again.

Sitting in the confined walls for the rest of their lives.

"Whatever happens, we're in it together," Lawrence tells Adam, wiping his eyes. He holds Adam's hand again. "We were in the bathroom once, and we got through that. Whatever happens, I love you. And I'll love you forever."

"Forever and ever," Adam agrees. And with a smile on his face, he closes his eyes and succumbs to sleep, giving into the life he has ahead of him. Because there's nothing left for him to do. There's nothing left to fight against. Nothing left to hold onto.

Adam's mind fades away into the dark as Lawrence holds him. For the the first time, he feels peaceful. Not angry. Not sad. Just peaceful.

And isn't that how it should be?

It's ironic how Adam had worked so hard to get Lawrence and avoid prison, but now he is going to have Lawrence and prison anyways.

Even though Adam had tried to evade prison, he is going anyways.

And for some reason, that's okay.

It's strange, but there Adam and Lawrence were, both victims of Jigsaw, trying to establish why going to prison was so bad in the first place. There were no people kidnapping you from your house at night. No people threatening to kill you for someone. It's an alternate reality. A world out of confined muggshots, drug addicts, murderers, and chaos.

What that world's going to be like, Adam doesn't know. What they're going to build up from the ground to be their sanctuary, they don't know.

Even after all that striving and fighting, where Adam and Lawrence have ended up is in the middle of nowhere, not knowing what to do.

And maybe knowing isn't the point.

Where they're standing now, in the ruins of Jigsaw's legacy, in the ruins of their lives, what they build...

What they build could be anything.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Oh my God, I actually finished a chapter fic! :D This was amazing, and such an honor to write! X3 No hating on the ending if you didn't like it though, please. It took me forever to come up with it, so... As you can tell, by how long it took for me to update. This was the funnest fic I've ever written. I almost don't want to end it, but I know I have to. And you can say that it _wasn't _a happy ending, but Adam and Lawrence were still together.

XD I've seriously never written a fic with so many words...I'll try to make my others long like this. So please look out for updates! :D

And what I can say about a sequel...I really can't make one to top how good I feel about it. Sorry I couldn't make Hoffman gay too, but maybe for another AdamXLawrence fic...And just so you know, Hoffman looked at Adam like that in an earlier chapter because he wanted to get rid of him. And at the end, Adam didn't die. XD Just so you know. He passed out. I knew there were going to be some questions concerning that.

Well, now I just want to say thank you to everyone who read and review this fic! It really means a lot that you guys love this story! :D Especially since it's the only good fic I've ever written! :D You guys are awesome. I think I can say I have the best readers ever. Oh, and if you guys want to find me on YouTube, check out BrandNewEyes777's channel! That is meh! :D

It's been a real ride, guys. :D Thanks for everything.

- No More Sorrowxx


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